The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) on Thursday added 15 compounds to its list of monitored chemicals due to health and public safety concerns.
The EPA Toxic and Chemical Substances Bureau said it had enacted controls on lead (II,IV) oxide, also known as Pb3O4, after it was mixed in with powdered cinnabar prescribed by a Chinese medicine clinic in Taichung.
The bureau said it hoped that by tightening control of Pb3O4, similar events could be avoided in the future.
Long-term ingestion of Pb3O4 can cause lead poisoning, movement disorders, and damage to the heart, reproductive, and endocrine systems, the bureau said in a statement.
In addition, excessive ingestion can also trigger comas and epilepsy, the bureau added.
Also banned were PbO, sodium sulfide, sodium thiocyanate, and 2-naphthol.
According to the bureau, PbO is added in century eggs to speed up their fermentation, while sodium sulfide is illegally used as an artificial scent enhancer by vendors of stinky tofu.
Sodium thiocyanate and 2-naphthol, meanwhile, are sometimes used in dairy products or soy sauce as preservatives, the bureau said.
The bureau added that it would also begin monitoring ingredients sometimes found in improvised explosive devices - including calcium ammonium nitrate, ammonium perchlorate, ammonium perchlorate, sodium percarbonate, sodium nitrate, and calcium nitrate - along with nitromethane, sodium azide, and aluminum phosphide.
Meanwhile, new psychoactive substances (NSP) 1,4-Butanediol and glaucine are also to be monitored, the bureau said, adding that the addition of the two chemicals referred to reports that other countries filed with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
All of the aforementioned monitored chemicals must not be used without permission and must not be traded on the internet, the bureau said.
People or entities permitted to use monitored chemicals must label them, account for their uses on the internet, and declare such uses monthly, the bureau added.
Those who use monitored chemicals concerning food safety must label them as not intended for human consumption, the bureau said.
Moreover, those who use monitored chemicals that are precursor substances to explosives must not sell, import, transport or store them without permission and would be subject to a quota on the amount allowable, according to the bureau.
If the quota is met, people or entities using or in possession of precursor substances to explosives would be required to tender a disaster prevention contingency plan, purchase liability insurance, train responders, file applications should they need to transport such substances, and install alarms and detectors at their premises, it said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel