Tag: Taiwan

Levels of airborne fine particulate matter in some of Taiwan’s nightclubs are worse than occur outdoors, according to a story in The Taipei Times quoting a non-governmental health organization.

The John Tung Foundation’s CEO Yao Shi-yuan said a study conducted by the foundation and academics last month had shown that levels of PM2.5 – airborne particles of 2.5 micrometers or smaller – at three pubs and nightclubs that allowed smoking indoors were much higher than were “unhealthy” outdoor levels.

At one establishment, a reading 12 times the unhealthy level had been recorded.

Forty-four nations had banned smoking indoors to protect employees from long-term exposure to second-hand smoke at work, and Taiwan should follow suit, Yao said.

Taipei Medical University researcher Kao Chi-wen, who conducted the survey with the John Tung Foundation and the Consumers’ Foundation, said that PM2.5 levels exceeding 71 micrograms per cubic meter of air (mg/m3) were considered “very high” and unhealthy for the human body, but levels measured at nightclubs were typically from 697.9 mg/m3 to 703.2 mg/m3, with the highest reading being 912 mg/m3.

Kao said some of the substances in second-hand smoke were finer than PM2.5, which meant they could be carried deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.

The Consumers’ Foundation chairman Yu Kai-hsiung said that with the smoking rate in Taiwan at 16 percent, requiring pubs and nightclubs to ban smoking indoors would mean asking only a few people to step outside when they wanted to smoke. And doing so would provide a healthier indoor environment for others.

The foundations have urged the government to modify regulations to ban smoking in all indoor public places.

Starting on March 1, tobacco smoking will be prohibited at 1,150 shelters at 932 bus stops in Taipei, Taiwan, according to a story in The Taipei Times quoting the Taipei Department of Health.

From that date. those who smoked at these bus stops would face fines of between NT$1,200 and NT$10,000, the department said.

And those who throw cigarette butts on the ground will face fines of NT$1,200 for a first offense, NT$3,600 for a second and up to NT$5,000 for a third.

The Taipei Department of Health’s secretary-general Lee Pi-hui said that his department had been advising the public of the new tobacco-smoking policy since the start of the year, using ‘various channels’.

And the Taipei Public Transportation Office director Chang Hua-chen said his office had posted no smoking signs on bus shelters while bus companies had promoted the policy in their vehicles.

The transportation office plans to send inspectors to check bus shelters once the ban takes effect, Chang said.

The department of health said that it had conducted surveys in 2014 and 2015 to test public opinion on non-smoking bus shelters and the results had showed that 94 percent and 95 percent of respondents supported the restriction.

It said it had received petitions from people demanding a smoking ban at all bus shelters.