Although Taiwan's polluted rivers have finally attracted national attention and considerable public support has emerged for major reclamation efforts, environmental protection experts think there has been surprisingly little public interest in exposing and controlling the worsening air pollution in the island, particularly in Taipei.
There may be rather selfish reasons for neglect in this area, for the chief sources of pollution in the cities are not factories spewing waste material into the atmosphere, but the city's residents themselves. The key offenders are motorcycles and automobiles that have leaped in numbers, especially during the past five years, as ever larger portions of the populace can afford more expensive forms of transportation.
According to Chien You-shin, head of the ROC's Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), the total number of vehicles in Taiwan reached 8.1 million by the end of last year—about 750,000 more than the 1985 figures. These statistics would come as no surprise to commuters in Taipei, for example, where any morning driver is likely to swear that all the new car and cycle purchases have been made by people who take the same route to work.
Growing feelings of potential grid lock in Taipei have an element of truth about them. Chien says: "The vehicular density in Taipei is ten times higher than Los Angeles. About 83 percent or 7.3 million of the total are motorcycles, and 75 percent of these have two-stroke engines, which emit more toxic gases than other types of engines. If no technological breakthrough takes place in motorcycle engine design in the near future, manufacturers may be banned from making them."
The public may be largely indifferent, but the government is acutely aware of the problem. The increased attention given to Taipei's air pollution was under scored by a "Seminar on Vehicular Pollution Control" held late last year, sponsored by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Two days of intensive meetings brought together over 300 local and foreign environmental protection experts to discuss both the planning processes and practical steps that are needed to combat worsening environmental hazards.
From the initial session, the message came through loud and clear: something has to be done about vehicular pollution, and soon. AIT Director David Dean quoted an ROC government report in his opening speech to the seminar participants, stating that 90 percent of Taipei's air pollution is caused by cars, buses, and motorcycles. The cruel irony is that quality of life is negatively influenced by pollution at the same time it is being raised by modernization. The net result, Dean told the gathering, is that "industrial progress can create serious environmental problems which lower the quality of life of all citizens regardless of their income level." No matter who buys the new car or motor cycle, their neighbors have to breathe the fumes.
American experts at the seminar urged Taiwan's decision makers to adopt some of the same technology and expertise that the U.S. has used to tackle its own pollution problems. Chien expressed his satisfaction with the seminar, lauding AIT for arranging a venue for sharing U.S. experience in combating air pollution. He added that it was "a timely effort that would help the newly established EPA in drawing up appropriate urban air-quality standards and an effective compliance program."
The ROC's former Environmental Protection Bureau was elevated last August to a full-fledged Environmental Protection Administration, directly under the Executive Yuan. Its mission is to consolidate the efforts of the public and private sectors in attacking air, water, and noise pollution on the island, a momentous task because of extensive environmental degradation already well underway throughout Taiwan.
At the inauguration of the agency, Premier Yu Kuo-hwa stated that the government would rather sacrifice economic growth than have pollution continue to worsen. "Taiwan's rapid economic development over the past four decades has brought prosperity to the people, but it has also downgraded the quality of the environment," the premier said. Elevating the bureau to an administration is seen as a symbol of the government's determination to upgrade the country's environmental protection program and bring it in line with those of more developed countries.
During the seminar, Dean hailed the creation of the EPA as a "reflection of a growing concern over Taiwan's environment." lie said that it is important for the ROC, as for other newly industrialized countries, to start cleaning up its environment as soon as possible.
Focusing on vehicular pollution, ten American experts shared their experiences in dealing with the problem in their country. Dr. Rashid Shaikh of the U.S. Health Effects Institute stressed the importance of establishing public awareness of pollution and its serious effects on public health. As an example, he cited the "heavy fog incident" in London in 1952 in which some 4,000 people died because of acute air pollution. A similar incident occurred in Pennsylvania in 1948. He then described the ways in which lead, ozone, and diesel fuel, as some of the more common types of air pollutants, cause lung damage ranging from minor irritation to cancer.
Shaikh added that lead continues to be a major source of pollution, although the problem has been reduced somewhat in the U.S. in recent years thanks to legislative action. Lead was first introduced as a gasoline additive in the late 1920s, and since then about 80 percent of the lead emissions in the U.S. have come from vehicles. As a result, the introduction of unleaded gasoline in 1975 and the reduction of the lead content of leaded gasoline in 1986 significantly lowered emission levels. Members of the seminar suggested that Taiwan might take a similar approach, since most of its vehicles still use leaded fuel.
The seminar presented background information on forms of pollution, and discussed some of the latest technology to correct environmental hazards. Because the whole environmental movement is rather young in Taiwan, publicity from the seminar was intended to have more than a professional audience. Sponsors saw the seminar as a useful vehicle itself for educating the public at large on basic facts about environmental damage through pollutants.
Dr. Shaikh's discussion of ozone, which unlike other vehicular air pollutants is not emitted directly from vehicles but is formed in the atmosphere by a complex chemical process especially aggravated during the summer, was particularly relevant to Taiwan. The island's hot and humid summer months often have series of polluted days that make it difficult to breathe comfortably.
But Taiwan is not the exception in the developing or developed world. To demonstrate the seriousness of air pollution in the United States and other industrial countries, Dr. Shaikh said that some 60 million Americans live in areas that fail to meet the national air quality standard for carbon monoxide, and some 80 million in areas that violate the ozone standard. Nevertheless, significant achievements have been made over the last three decades in controlling vehicular pollution in the U.S., and experts continue to improve existing technologies. The costs have been high, and now that the ROC has become more wealthy itself, government officials and other responsible citizens are seeking concrete approaches to cleaning up the environment and keeping it that way.
Beyond lowering the lead content of gasoline to reduce pollution, there are continuing attempts to replace it altogether with a better and safer fuel. "The most promising alternative fuel for transportation purposes at present appears to be methanol," Dr. Shaikh told the gathering. He said scientific studies show that exposure to methanol vapor is not likely to cause adverse health effects. Aside from reducing the world's reliance on the petroleum-producing countries of the Middle East, the wide-spread use of methanol as a fuel would lower the amount of carbon monoxide and ozone pollution caused by gasoline.
Charles N. Freed of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the seminar that strict regulations on vehicle manufacturers coupled with a strong compliance program have proved an effective way to reduce vehicular pollution. "To be effective, an environmental protection agency must perform the following tasks: conduct research on the character of the pollutants emitted by motor vehicles to assess their impact on health; set emission standards and develop test procedures to lower emissions; implement a compliance program to ensure that the standards are being met; and enforce sanctions when violations occur."
Freed said the best way to check whether emission standards are being met is to test both new and old cars—new cars to see whether they have the capability to meet the standards, and old cars to see whether they still meet the standards after several years on the road. He said that tampering and fuel switching are the two most common problems his agency has encountered in enforcement, and they are the two most likely to occur in the ROC and other countries as well. (Tampering removes or blocks an automobile's emission control device, and fuel switching refers to the use of the wrong kind of gasoline.) Sanctions in the U.S. range from requiring manufacturers to repair old cars that fail to pass government tests to a total ban on manufacturers that violate government standards.
Both Shaikh and Freed agreed that cooperation between the public and private sectors is the main key in fighting air pollution. "This is a very difficult task, perhaps the most difficult task of all, in controlling pollution," Dr. Shaikh said.
There are strong signs of growing government and private cooperation in local pollution control. According to the ROC's Ministry of Economic Affairs, 123 out of 128 plants and factories rated the most serious polluters by an Executive Yuan committee have already started improving their antipollution measures. The industrial sector reportedly invested NT$10 billion in antipollution equipment in 1987 alone.
The EPA's Chien says top Taiwan companies such as Formosa Plastics and Far Eastern Textile have already set up their own environmental protection departments to deal with pollution problems at their factories and plants, and a two-stage program for vehicular emission control is placing more stringent restrictions on local vehicle manufacturers.
The first part of the ROC's program, patterned after the ECP-1505 standards in Europe, began in May 1986 with the issuance of the Automobile Air Pollutant Emission Standard, which requires the inspection of new model vehicles in simulated driving tests. The second stage, modeled after the U.S. Federal FTPS-83 standard, will be implemented by 1990.
Chien says that the ROC's efforts to control vehicular pollution in fact date back some time. The government began conducting exhaust inspections and regulating black smoke emission from diesel-powered vehicles in 1976. In 1980, the Agency, which was then a bureau, began conducting roadside checks on an average of 300 vehicles daily. In 1983 the state-run China Petroleum Corporation lowered the sulfur content of its diesel fuel by 0.5 to 0.1 percent to help decrease vehicular pollution. It later reduced the amount of lead in its leaded gasoline by 0.15 gm per liter, in line with the European standard.
The government has begun other significant programs to alleviate vehicular pollution. One of the most ambitious, and most expensive, is Taipei's planned Mass Rapid Transit System (see FCR, September 1987), which should greatly reduce public reliance on buses and motorcycles. The system is expected to be completed in 10 years. "We want to be on a par with world standards, and in getting there we can promote greater trade, too," Chien says.
Taiwan indeed offers great potential as a market for a new industry: the antipollution business. Last year alone, an estimated US$800 million was spent by the government and private sectors on antipollution equipment and consulting. Local analysts expect the market to grow by 20 percent a year until the 1990s. So far, American firms have fared well in selling antipollution equipment, holding a market share in 1986 of at least 30 percent.
AIT has continued to play a role in introducing the latest in U.S. antipollution technology to local audiences. In December it held a Pollution Control Equipment Exhibition in Taipei, and its staff continues to follow up on the issue with government officials and private businesses. The U.S. is of course not the only source of technical assistance and antipollution products. Many antipollution companies from other countries which formerly specialized in selling environmental protection equipment are now said to be concentrating on software and consulting. At latest count in Taiwan there were 76 firms specializing in waste water treatment, 20 in noise control, 20 in anti-air pollution, and 30 more focusing efforts on garbage treatment.
Continuing government efforts to boost public awareness of the dangers of pollution promise a lucrative market for both local and foreign enterprises. But no matter who wins the contracts, the biggest winners of all will be the people of Taiwan, who will eat less contaminated food, drink purer water, and breathe cleaner air.