Ministry draws attention to cigarette litter, dengue

HEALTH RISKS: Climate change has increased the risk of dengue fever, Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming said, adding that water containers should be drained

• By Wu Po-hsuan and Esme Yeh / Staff reporter, with staff writer

About 9 billion cigarette butts are improperly discarded every year, the Ministry of Environment said yesterday as it mobilized 50,000 people nationwide to clean streets.

The ministry yesterday held an environmental clean-up event named “Team Planet” in support of Earth Day on Tuesday.

The event galvanized nearly 50,000 people from enterprises, civic groups and local environmental bureaus across the nation’s 22 administrative areas into taking part in picking up litter on streets, as well as draining water out of containers to prevent the spread of dengue fever.

Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭?明) attended the event in Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) shopping area, saying that maintaining clean streets, keeping cigarette butts of the ground, and preventing dengue fever are the three goals for this year to echo Earth Day.

Streets must be kept clean, as even beautiful places would lose half of their charm if they are defiled with rubbish, he said.

Public environments are mostly kept clean thanks to the efforts of sanitation workers and volunteers, Peng said, adding that more Taiwanese should be aware that littering is illegal.

“Although the number of smokers is decreasing in Taiwan, there are still about 36 billion cigarettes sold every year,” he said.

Improperly discarded cigarette butts could fall into gutters and flow into the ocean, causing marine microbeads to increase, Peng said, calling on smokers to take cigarette butts home for proper disposal.

Taipei Department of Environmental Protection Director Shyu Shyh-shiun (徐世?) also said that discarding cigarette butts into gutters would result in environmental pollution, although some smokers argue that it would be less likely to cause fire.

The Taipei City Government has set up 1,800 cigarette snuffers across the city, more than double the 650 asked for by the ministry, he said.

About 9 billion, or 25 percent, of the 36 billion cigarettes sold every year were improperly discarded, Environmental Management Administration Director-General Yen Hsu-ming (顏旭明) said.

The government would clamp down on cigarette littering at popular smoking spots such as convenience stores or stir-fry restaurants, he said.

Regarding dengue control, data from the Centers for Disease Control has shown that the global dengue fever pandemic peaked last year.

Peng said that global warming has prolonged summers and might lead to an outbreak of the dengue fever epidemic earlier this year.

Dengue fever is no longer limited to southern Taiwan and has infected some people in the north, while other countries such as Japan and South Korea are also carefully preparing for dengue control, he said.

To prevent dengue fever, it is fundamental to frequently check if containers are collecting water, drain the water, dump waste containers, and scrub mosquito eggs from containers, Peng said, calling on people to take the four actions eliminate mosquito habitats around their residence.