The burning of joss paper is a sacred ritual practice for deity worshipping in Taiwan. During important festivals, joss papers are usually burned openly or in temple furnaces, as well as in the home. However, investigations increasingly reveal that joss paper burning is a significant source of particulate matter (PM), metal elements and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in ambient air. Therefore, the major tasks of this project includes: (1) Build up the database of the temples in Nantou County; (2) Educate the public and the temple workers, via questionnaire and symposium, to reduce the amount of joss paper burned, and evaluate the feasibility of constructing an united joss paper treatment system; (3) Analyze the air and soil samples of the temples neighborhood to investigate the impacts of joss paper burning to ambient environments. The investigation results of this project indicate that most of the public in Nantou County understand that joss paper burning will result in pollution, but don’t clearly realize the levels of the impacts of the pollution. On the other hand, although most of the public approve the reduce-joss-paper policy, most of the temple workers think that obeying traditional religious worshipping is also very important. The analysis results of the air samples reveal that joss paper burning significantly affected the ambient air quality of the temples. The concentrations of NOx、SO2、CO and PAHs nearby the temples are averagely 1.4 ~ 5.5 times higher than the background values. Therefore, some restrictions of joss paper burning are necessary to protect the health of the public.

Nantou County, temple, joss paper burning, air pollution