They pointed out that the public uproar over the U.S. pressure to force the government here to widen imports of American beef products and lawmakers' plan of revising existing regulations for a direct ban on certain beef products underline the unfair international practice dictated by strong powers.

Taiwan has been prohibited from shipping its pork to many nations since the 1997 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which is not a life-threatening livestock illness, they said.

However, the handful nations with mad cow disease cases have forced other nations to import their beef products.

The mad cow disease caused 168 confirmed human deaths in the period of 1995 to 1996, they said.

Despite the government efforts of establishing tighter beef quarantine and inspection through administrative measures plus the boycott of many restaurants and retailers, there is no guarantee for the safety of beef products like skulls, backbones, brain matter, and certain intestine parts and organs, they noted.

They also cast doubts over the effectiveness of public resistance to the eased beef imports by holding a referendum for reopening the talks on beef trade.

The best way to shield themselves from safety hazards that could be caused by imported products is to reject the purchase and use of beef products from abroad, they said.

Consumers should especially stay away from the cattle's internal organs, ground beef, and bones from the U.S.

This will be an effective way to show importers that there will be no profits for them if they insist on shipping such products to the Taiwan market, they said.

In order to eliminate possible side effects, the government and legislators should team up to amend the rules and ban imports of all products made of cattle materials from areas infected with mad cow disease.

They said the prohibited products should include cattle bone powder for teeth and other medical operations.

New rules should also be drawn up to require the destruction of kitchen waste involving American beef products with extremely high heat at incinerators or facilities for medical wastes, they added.