Health department to mull consumer compensation scheme

2011/06/03 Taipei, June 3 (CNA) The Department of Health (DOH) will assess the feasibility of a scheme to help victims of plasticizer-tainted food products receive compensation, Chao Kun-yu, deputy director-general of the DOH's Bureau of Health Promotion, said Friday. Chao made his remark at a DOH meeting to deal with an ongoing scandal that involves the adulteration of food and beverage products with toxic plasticizers in Taiwan. The meeting brought together experts and scholars in the fields of environmental toxic chemicals, toxicology, public health, obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology. They all said the health department should establish a compensation scheme for victims poisoned by the plasticizers. Participants in the meeting thought the public has endured enough fear from the plasticizer threat, and that the government should confiscate all the ill-gotten gains of the illegal manufacturers and use that money to subsidize the victims' medical expenses, said Yang Chen-chang, associate professor of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at National Yang Ming University. Consumers' Foundation Chairperson Joann Su said the better way is to have food manufacturers establish a foundation to compensate the victims because lawsuits are time consuming. In addition, if consumers sue, it will be difficult for them to prove their illness was caused by the products. The Legislative Yuan on Friday submitted a draft amendment of the Act Governing Food Sanitation for second reading. A cross-party consultation on the draft amendment could take place as soon as next week, said Lin Yi-shih, executive director of the Kuomintang policy committee. Under the terms of the draft amendment, maximum fines for manufacturing or selling toxic food products will be raised from the current NT$300,000 (US$10,456) to NT$10 million, and violators could face a prison sentence of up to five years. In may, authorities discovered that cancer-causing plasticizers such as DEHP and DINP were mixed into a food additive called clouding agent by two local food ingredient suppliers. As of noon Friday, 855 products from 252 manufacturers have been found to contain tainted clouding agent. (By Chen Ching-fang and Christie Chen) enditem/ly