The 2012 “Taichung City Specific Pollution Source Control and Indoor Air Quality Management Project” started from Aug 9 2012 to Jan 31 2013 and consisted of auditing and control of dining business, promotion of concentrated incineration of ritual money and reduction from source, exposed burning control, indoor air quality inspections and consultation, and autonomous management and promotion. Works done by Jan 31 2013 are described as follows:
1. Achievement of auditing and control of dining business
Auditing on cooking exhaust control equipment was performed and consultation provided to 200 businesses, and 500 brochures were prepared and distributed during the auditing on these dining businesses. Assistance in pollution improvement was provided to 25 stores that had been reported for several times. A presentation of “2012 Taichung City Dining Business Demonstration Area Project Propaganda and Promotion” at Zhongzheng Hall, Environmental Protection Bureau on Oct 24 2012, and “Wenxin South Night Market” was selected as the dining business demonstration area of Taichung City 2012. The “Promotion activity for Taichung City dining business demonstration area” was held at Wenxin South Night Market on Jan 20, 22, 23 and 25 2013. This activity was provided to encourage the realization of autonomous management of dining business in the area. All of the 37 cooking exhaust producing businesses had washing or electrostatic control devices installed on their business equipment, allowing significant improvement of meandering cooking exhausts and air pollution control performance of the dining business.
2. Achievement of promotion of concentrated incineration of ritual money and reduction from source
The promotion of reduction and concentrated incineration of ritual money is part of this project. 1248.34 tons of ritual money were collected for removal up to Jan 31, exceeding the goal of 1,000 tons set for the project. This indicates that the idea to collect ritual money and burn it all together has been widely accepted by citizens. To clear the concern of citizens that collecting ritual money and burning it in incinerators is disrespectful to the gods, 3 sessions of incinerator cleansing rituals were performed at the City’s 3 incinerators were provided along with 3 additional sessions of presentation to promote the idea of concentrated removal of ritual money for Chinese New Year and Ghosts’ Festival. 3,000 posters, 5,000 brochures and 2,000 banners were produced and distributed. For interview with temples and shrines, inspections were performed on the environmental protection facility at 104 temples and shrines and 19 accepted assistance for establishment of environmental protection measures. Also, the “2012 Taichung City Environment-friendly Temple Demonstration and Promotion Activity” was organized to help the temples and shrines in the city jurisdiction understand what environment-friendly temples are and how they work (such as reduced use of ritual money, incense and candles, environment-friendly ritual money furnace and seal of furnace) through visits of environment-friendly temples in and outside of Taichung City, hoping to improvement the environmental protection and pollution reduction concepts of temples and shrines and point the direction for the consultation of environment-friendly temples.
3. Achievement of exposed burning control
A survey on the land registration information for the properties on which waste materials were burned in an outdoor environment found by the inspection team in order to improve the exposed burning control performance and prevent exposed burning of waste materials. 100 notifications were issued to landowners as soon as their information was acquired and inspections and warnings were provided during the second stage of rice farming. Also to discourage burning materials in an exposed environment, a printed media propaganda was facilitated to remind people not to do so, and the project team worked with Daya and Qingshui Farmers’ Associations for the presentation for prevention of exposed burning on Oct 17 and Dec 19 2012, respectively, to allow interactions among association staff, production and marketing units and local farmers. The host of the presentation urged the citizens not to burn straws in an exposed environment and explained what harms burning straws can bring to human health. Also explanation was provided for proper disposal of farming wastes and evaluation of straw recycling and reuse.
4. Indoor air quality inspections and consultation, and autonomous management and promotion
For public places where there are high concentration and access of people, inspections were carried out on 20 places on 4 substances (CO, CO2, formaldehyde and total VOC) using precision instruments. CO2 tests were performed on 72 public places and those participating in the autonomous management over the years. 10 senior high schools or lower level and medical facilities participated in the microbial morphology tests. Also 6 places were selected for tests based on the (10) methods promulgated by Environmental Protection Administration. 20 public places were successfully added into the autonomous management of indoor air quality this year. Furthermore, as part of the EPA’s “promotion plan for indoor air quality management system of public places” to prepare public places for the autonomous management of indoor air quality, 4 presentations and 3 discussion sessions were provided to explain where the promotion of autonomous indoor air quality management goes in Taichung City, the establishment of autonomous management system, key points to develop an autonomous indoor air quality management proposal, indoor air quality diagnosis, air pollutant improvement techniques and improvement cases. Also indoor air quality brochures and posters were distributed to help people understand how to control and improve indoor air quality.
