Gov’t to give compensation to dioxin victims in Tainan

The Tainan City Government made the decision on the financial compensation to residents of three “lis” (one li covers several hundreds of households) in Anan District.

Recipients of the compensation are the residents who are tested with over 64pg (picogram) of cancer-causing dioxin in their blood because of the industrial pollution caused by a chemical plant.

One picogram is one trillionth of a gram.

Health examination by health officials showed that the dioxin content of most residents in the area reached 951pg, 30 times higher than the safety standard of 30pg set by the United Nations.

Officials said those with dioxin content under 64pg will be given NT$1,814 every month.

Those who were seriously ill for the same reason will be entitled to NT$15,840 or the minimum monthly wage, while the family of those who died will be compensated with NT$200,000.

MOEA officials said the money will be temporarily allocated from the government-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp. (CPC) retroactive to 2005, although the court has not yet delivered a final verdict on the legal case.

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has prevented dioxin pollution from a defunct chemical factory in Tainan from affecting human health through the food chain since 2003, according to Huang Wan-chu, executive secretary of an EPA committee in charge of a fund for the treatment of polluted soil.

A study conducted by National Cheng Kung University at the request of the Tainan City Government tested the blood samples of 570 residents living in Tainan’s Anan district, where the chemical factory operated between 1942 and 1982.

The results of the study show that 72 percent of them have much higher levels of dioxin in their blood than the tolerance limit set by the U.N.

Dioxins are known carcinogens which can cause birth defects, diabetes, immune system abnormalities and many other adverse health effects if they accumulate in the body in large amounts.

Huang pointed out that the EPA has used more than NT$110 million since 2003 to remove contamination sources and monitor soil conditions and water quality in fish ponds around the former site of the now defunct Anshun factory of Taiwan Alkali Industrial Corp.

He also said that in July 2005, the MOEA agreed to set aside NT$1.3 billion over five years to help the affected residents.

Huang said the high dioxin levels in the blood of residents near the closed factory was due to the accumulation of toxins over a long period.

The factory in question, which was set up by the Japanese in 1937 to produce hydrochloric acid, caustic soda, and sodium salt, became a state-owned company the year after Japan’s surrender and pullout from Taiwan in 1945.

CPC, the state-owned enterprise under the supervision of the MOEA, bought all the shares of Taiwan Alkali in 1967. The factory was merged in 1983 with CPC’s subsidiary, China Petrochemical Development Corp., which went private in 1994.

For decades, residents living around the factory grew farm produce and raised fish in ponds without any knowledge of the pollution hazard.

Recently declassified government documents show that the MOEA became aware that mercury concentrations in the fish catch from the area exceeded safe levels for human consumption as early as in 1982.

Many seriously ill residents have been seeking state compensation on grounds that the factory was owned by the government.

They have also complained that the monthly allowance of some NT$1,800 per person from a state fund is too meager to pay for their medical bills and other expenses.

An ongoing and sweeping health examination for more than 4,000 residents in the affected area will continue.

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