[Environmental][CSR][Sci-tech Policy] Research Report: The No. 6 Naphtha Cracking Project and the Cancer Rates in Its Settlement Are “Highly Relevant”

[Environmental][CSR][Sci-tech Policy] Research Report: The No. 6 Naphtha Cracking Project and the Cancer Rates in Its Settlement Are “Highly Relevant” (Chinese Version)

Liberty Times (2009/06/08) NTU-Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene Professor Chang-chuan CHAN presents his investigation report “The Risk Assessment of the Effects of Air Pollution on the Environment and Residents' Health in Coastal Areas” (trans. temp.), which is the research project commissioned by the Environmental Protection Bureau of Yunlin County, indicating that the cancer rates of the residents in the settlement neighborhood of No. 6 Naphtha Cracking and the No. 6 Naphtha Cracking are “highly relevant.”

The report shows that the all sites cancer rates in the five townships (Mailiao, where NC-6 settles, Taihsi, Dongshih, Lunbei and Zuhu) ostensively increase after 1999 when NC-6 (六輕, Number Six Naphtha Cracking Project) began to discharge volatile organic compounds, VOCs. For example, the incidence rate of Liver cancer and the incidence rate of all sites in Taihsi grows thirty percent and eighty percent.

Professor Chang-chuan CHAN points out that he has designed three methods: first, he sets 1999 when NC-6 began to discharge the emissions as the base year, contrasting the incidence rate and death rate of cancer before and after it. Then, he defines the area within ten kilometers from NC-6 including townships of Mailiao (麥寮), Taihsi (台西), Dongshih (東勢), Lunbei (崙背), Zuhu (四湖) and Baojhong (褒忠) as the exposed group, while selects similar four townships outside the area regarding the urbanization index equivelance, including Cihtong (莿桐), Huwei (虎尾), Erlun (二崙) and Yuanchang (元長) as the control group, contrasting their cancer incidence rates and death rates. Thirdly has he investigated the correlations between the air monitoring data and the data of patient numbers of the acute diseases of the circulatory system within the continuation of thirteen months.

Chang-chuan CHAN points out that the research focuses on incidence rate rather than the death rate, for the latter is also related to the research subjects' economic status and the medical care quality and hence less acurate. The result of the investigation suggests that it is obviously relevant between the NC-6's VOCs emissions and the heath condition of the residents around NC-6, and that the government should begin to take up the following epidemic studies and control the interference factors so that the relevance between exposure and the health can be clarified and the health of the residents could be preserved.

In response to the report, Formosa Petrochemical Corporation, FPCC (台塑化), insists that NC-6 has been through the health risk assessment, as well as approved by the Environmental Bureau's serial evaluations, whose results both show that NC-6 meets the standards. FPCC- NC-6 Management Office points out, too, that there are plenty of factors for cancer rates; it is not fair to place NC-6 the exlusive to blame.


Further Information:
Liverty Times 2009/06/08 (Chinese)
Liberty Times: National Cheng Kung University's 2005 Report Has Suggested NC-6's Causing the Increase of Cancer Rate, Which Was However Buried by Industrial Development Bureau 2009/06/09 (Chinese)
The Control Policy of Yunlin Environmental Protection Bureau on NC-6's Air Pollution 2009/06/08 (Chinese)
FPCC No. 6 Naphtha Cracking Project Brief Intro
CSR Taiwan Citing Liberty Times 2009/06/08 (Chinese)
Dr. Chang-Chuan CHAN's Website



(編輯記錄)