Arguably the price is high when one takes into account the actual costs to health and environment. Only cheap while the population doesnt care.
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I seem to recall an interesting thread on this or pollution in the soil, around 20 years ago here.
Yes, enjoy your metal. I more worry about the water, use bottled water and try clean out tank on top of the house as always see some build up of things.
cental taiwan is not good, i buy rice from my home Japan or Taitung instead
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This kind of goes to show the various conversations here over the years pointing out we as individuals are also responsible for our own pollution in soils, water and food. in a large proportion of Taiwan, everything you dump down the drain, leak from your car or spill anywhere ends up directly in our irrigation water, rivers and oceans. Much will stay in soils as well.
So although corruption and illegal dumping style pollution is also rampant here, so is the lack of personal responsibility in the household as many households drains end up directly in the ditches which are often used for irrigation.
The give needs to improve, and so do all if us around what we are using in the house to wash, clean etc.
as another aside, all that shit we down the drain can also dry out in rivers and become airborne. dust storms are common in Taiwan and dont contain âjust rockâ.
Every person can and should be doing more to improve this problem as all of us are complicit. No time like now to make some changes 
Youâre actually buying the rice in Japan, and not in Kaohsiung that has just been shipped down from ChungHua and packed into nice bags that say Niigata New Season #1 rice?
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I agree about the need for personal responsibility.
However the average user probably doesnât contribute much to mercury pollution.
Lead from electronics and car batteries maybe.
The worst pollution from the average consumer by volume is probably plastic, which ends up as microplastics in the environment, and ends up in the food chain and our bodies.
indeed. I meant pollution in general. more detergents, pesticides, chlorine etc. However, copper is something used in some pesticides that may not be industrial level but still an issue. Customers directly cause this by supporting farmers that use this etc.
Better education and, more importantly, more fucks given is certainly in order. we do after all support and cause the industrial offenders to repeat offend.
I think lighting the torches and bringing the pitchforks on scale is in order with heavy offenders like formosa plastics and other evil doers.
Basically you are breathing these metals if you live in the south on a daily basis in the polluted air. Sometimes I get random contact dermatitis because I touched some surface that had dust on it.
In the south are some zones that contain quite some arsenic which cause black-foot disease a long time ago because people in these areas used the groundwater to water their plants.
Taiwan can be a very toxic environment.
But then again - how do you get people to give a fuck? I feel like 70% of males are smoking excessively and chewing beetlenuts with their remaining 5 teeth. Not the best audience to rally for environmental change and selfcare. I am one of them, so I donât mind drinking filtered tap water. I am already a dead man walking considering my life-style.
This is the million dollar question. My opinion is things change generationally. We should be educating children a LOT more in school from day 1. on many things, not just health and contamination. money management, time management, spacial awareness, manners, operating machinery all that stuff. Should be mandatory from a very early age. when people are educated, and hopefully intelligent, overall there are better decisions being made. hopefully.
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rice i got, says from ćæ”·é, should I check the bag better?