even the most stupid animal doesn't behave like this

China Post editorial:


Three businessmen in southern Taiwan were detained last week in connection with the alleged supply of inferior-quality activated carbon used at 20 incinerators around the country.

Prosecutors say the trio will be charged with fraud, making false statements and violating the Waste Disposal Act. They claim that two Pingtung-based companies, having firstly provided qualified products to win contracts, subsequently switched to shoddy activated carbon and used delivery vehicles containing concealed compartments to substantially increase their profit margins.

Activated carbon, generally made from charcoal or coal, is used to absorb toxic chemical emissions in food and pharmaceutical manufacturing, water treatment and, in particular, at incinerators. If these allegations are correct, the implications for the health of the nation's population — which already suffers from one of the worst per capita dioxin load volumes in the world — will be grim, since before emission controls were introduced, incinerators were responsible for more than 80 percent of known dioxin sources, a figure that has been reduced by those correctly equipped with activated carbon, to under 5 percent.

Dioxins are naturally occurring organic compounds produced in relatively small quantities by volcanic action and forest fires. Since the Industrial Revolution, however, they have been produced synthetically in ever-increasing amounts, such as during the manufacture of plastics and pesticides, bleaching of paper and textiles, melting of iron and other metals, and energy production. Modern life is almost unimaginable without them, but they pose a severe threat to health. Largely ingested in food, they are stored in fatty tissues where, due to their low rates of metabolism and excretion (typical excretion half-lives are decades not months or years) they accumulate to toxic levels. Health problems include cancer, liver and endocrine malfunction, diabetes, genetic mutation, and birth and developmental defects, especially in relation to the immune, nervous and reproductive systems.

Last year alone, dioxins repeatedly made headlines in Taiwan, due to excessive levels in filtered water and mosquito coils, and thousands of ducks were culled at a Kaohsiung farm built on a former landfill site. Notorious cases elsewhere in the world include the Irish Pork Crisis and Naples Mozzarella Crisis of 2008; dioxins entering Belgium's food chain in 1999, which led to the culling of 7 million chickens and 60,000 pigs, and the ousting of the government in Belgium's next election; and the evacuation of the entire United States (U.S.) town of Times Beach, Missouri, in 1983, and its subsequent disincorporation. The effects of dioxins in the military defoliant Agent Orange on U.S. veterans and more than one million Vietnamese are still being researched in what is probably the largest-scale human research project into dioxin toxicity, while the dust produced by the 9-11 bombing of New York's Twin Towers caused what is claimed to be the highest ambient concentration of dioxins ever recorded.

All of which is to say that if the charges against the Pingtung three are substantiated — company spokespersons have already responded by saying the allegations are completely untrue — then their culpability far exceeds the charges of fraud and making false statements. They, and any other private or public citizens implicated through collusion or negligence, would be responsible for endangering the lives of millions of Taiwanese people.

Indeed, the scale of their greed would be quite astonishing. Given that the inferior product, which prosecutors allege contains as little as one-third of the legally required levels of activated compounds, were provided for more than six years to 20 incinerators located in every region of the country, from Keelung, Taipei city and county, and Taoyuan in the north, Miaoli, Taichung and Chaiyi in central Taiwan, to Tainan and Kaohsiung in the south, then the alleged culprits are guilty of polluting the very environment in which they live. For the sake of financial gain, the businessmen stand accused of endangering not just the lives of innumerable complete strangers but also of their own families and friends. The fact that these dioxins and heavy metals remain in the soil and water for decades means they could also endanger the healths and lives of these men's children and grandchildren. What kind of person would act in such a way? Even the least intelligent animals know better than to do this. [This last sentence was removed from the published version.]

It is hoped, therefore, that the companies' spokespersons are correct: that no fraud was committed and no dioxins were released into the island's environment. Not only would this be to the advantage of Taiwan's people's health, but it would also provide a reason to be optimistic about human beings' responsible behavior and our species' self-given mandate to manage the planet on behalf of all its inhabitants. Indeed, this case offers a salutary lesson to us all about how to conduct ourselves and how to balance the pleasures and conveniences of our modern lifestyles with the long-term preservation of an environment fit for our habitation.