74 residents of Yunlin with cancer sue five Formosa Plastics affiliate companies over the Sixth Naphtha Cracker Complex, seeking 70.17 million yuan in compensation

In recent years, the Formosa Plastics Group's Sixth Naphtha Cracker complex has been hit by multiple industrial safety incidents and environmental controversies, and both local residents and the team of Chan Chang-chuan, a professor at National Taiwan University's College of Public Health, have questioned whether the complex is linked to cancer among local residents. Today (the 14th), Yuan Zhen Law Firm filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of 74 cancer-stricken community members against five companies - Formosa Plastics Corporation, Formosa Petrochemical Corporation, Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, Taiwan Chemical Fiber Co., and Mailiao Power Corporation - seeking NT$70.17 million in damages. Local residents do not dare to hope for a chance of winning the lawsuit, candidly saying that "the point is not the money," but rather they hope Formosa Plastics will face up to the pollution problem instead of shirking responsibility at every turn.

If the court rules in favor of the residents and awards damages in full according to the amount they seek, each plaintiff would receive on average only NT$500,000 to NT$1 million in compensation, which simply "cannot compare" with Formosa Plastics' profits and the years of accumulated distress and fear borne by the residents. However, Lin Chin-lang, a resident of Taixi, said, "What we want is not money, but for Formosa Plastics to face up to the pollution problem."

Although Formosa Plastics has repeatedly questioned the relevant research by Chan Chang-chuan's team, arguing that "it cannot clearly prove" a causal relationship between the Sixth Naphtha Cracker complex and cancer among residents, the fact that local residents are dying of cancer one after another makes it hard for local public opinion to accept. Wu Tung-jung, whose family once lived under "four generations under one roof," lost elders to lung tumors, lung adenocarcinoma, and colorectal cancer, while Lin Chin-lang's own family members died of colorectal cancer and lung adenocarcinoma. "Can you imagine a village holding funerals every few days?" "Can a homeland like this ever be returned to?"

However, local figures point out that the residents of Mailiao Township did not take part in this compensation lawsuit. "After the major industrial safety fire in July 2011, they began handing out NT$600 in 'cash' per person per month," and residents do not dare to call it "hush money," yet for this reason they have also gone "quiet" about the Sixth Naphtha Cracker complex.

Lin Chin-lang said local residents are actually also afraid of "secondary harm." "When many relatives get married, the other side hears they are from Taixi or Mailiao in Yunlin, and the first thing they ask is 'Do you have cancer?'" Having family members and neighbors die of cancer is even more of an "indescribable pain" for the elders, so they often choose "silence and endurance."

Lawyer Chan Shun-kuei believes that filing a lawsuit for compensation actually cannot "cure cancer or bring people back from the dead," but choosing silence can only make the Sixth Naphtha Cracker complex even more "fearless," so he hopes more experts and scholars will be willing to provide research results and relevant evidence to assist the litigation team.