SEVEN DISTRICTS: People who live near the Taichung Power Plant, Dragon Steel Corp or the Central Taiwan Science Park are exposed to eight carcinogenic pollutants
Taipei Times
Date: Mar 18, 2019
By: Tsai Shu-yuan / Staff reporter
Taichung residents in seven districts are being exposed to higher concentrations of eight
A map shows PM2.5 levels across Taiwan on Thursday.Photo: CNA
first-level carcinogenic air pollutants, and the government should be treating the city’s pollution as a national security crisis, an academic told a public hearing on Saturday.
The hearing held by the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau at Chung Shan Medical University focused on the bureau’s latest report on the city’s air pollution and its effect on health.
People living in districts near the state-run Taichung Power Plant, which has 10 coal-fired units and four oil-fired units, the Dragon Steel Corp plant and the Central Taiwan Science Park are exposed to eight first-level airborne carcinogenic pollutants, including arsenic, dioxin, cadmium and nickel, said Liaw Yung-po (廖勇柏), a professor at the university.
The concentrations of carcinogenic pollutants are higher in Longjing (龍井), Situn (西屯), Dadu (大肚), Daya (大雅), Cingshuei (清水), Houli (后里) and Wuci (梧棲) than the city’s other districts, Liaw said his research had found. [FULL STORY]
