Most Toxic Coastline: Dust Collection Ash Buried Along Hsinchu Coast, Dioxin Levels 2.3 Times Over Standard, Zinc 120 Times Over Standard

"Taiwan actually has slag and dust collection ash polluting its coastline!" Legislator Lin Shu-fen, together with the Tainan Community University and the Taiwan Watch Institute, held a press conference pointing out that the Tainan Community University Environmental Action Group, during a May field survey this year beside the Fengbi Tunnel in Hsinchu, on the west side of the Xinfeng landfill site, discovered large slag waste that had not been crushed, magnetically separated, or screened; after being battered by ocean waves, broken flexible intermediate bulk containers (space bags) were visible beneath the slag waste, with brown dust collection ash exposed; they questioned whether this batch of waste was hazardous industrial waste abandoned by electric arc furnace operators ten or twenty years ago.

"Dumping unscreened slag industrial waste is already illegal, and hiding hazardous dust collection ash containing dioxins and heavy metals beneath the slag waste is even more excessive." Associate Professor Huang Huan-chang of the Department of Nursing at Chung Hwa University of Medical Technology harshly criticized. Lin Shu-fen and environmental groups have strongly urged government agencies to take emergency action to clear this batch of hazardous waste, "and give Taiwan a clean coastline again!"

Dust Collection Ash Dioxin Levels 2.3 Times Over Standard, Zinc 120 Times Over Standard

Testing of this batch of waste measured lead at 39,500 mg/kg, zinc at 239,000 mg/kg, and copper at 2,870 mg/kg, and the dioxin test value was 2,290 pg-TEQ/g, "exceeding the soil control standards by 20 times, 120 times, 7 times, and 2.3 times respectively." Huang Huan-chang pointed out that from this spectrum of sharply elevated lead, cadmium, and dioxin test values, it can be inferred that "this must be dust collection ash!"

So-called "dust collection ash" is the waste formed from suspended particulates and gases emitted during the electric arc furnace steelmaking process after being collected; it usually contains heavy metals such as lead, zinc, and cadmium, and because scrap steel often carries chlorine-containing paint or plastic, if it is directly burned at high temperature without proper treatment, dioxins are often also produced, so dust collection ash is classified as "hazardous industrial waste."