It would be nice to know how many foreign English teachers test positive for tb, especially for just a renewal. It seems like a waste to make people from countries with little/no tb take an x-ray every year, especially for an arc renewal. At least they’ll find out if they’ve developed lung cancer from all the x-rays they’ve had to take! 
Also, can a tb skin test be used instead?
Well, it was fun to try. However, TB is only a problem for Asians, Africans, and drug addicts, so far as I know. Any oun unintended.
I really dislike that they subject people to TB x-rays. What is it, like one x-ray is the same as 90 years of natural radiation? For a while I had to get those every year. Thank God I am not planning on having children.
From what I’ve read, most of the TB cases in the States are within the homeless population. Any high-risk group homeless Americans teaching English here? :?
well, feel homeless anyway. Both of my parents have died since I moved to Taiwan. 
Taiwan’s kind of my home now I guess, since I’ve been here for 10 years already.
Anyway, I wonder who, if anyone, would have the statistics on the number of foreigers found to have TB here…
Lots, I would imagine. As I said, TB is more common in Asia than in other places.
And most foreigners here happen to be Asian.
Mr. He,
I’ve never met a Thai here who teaches English! But if tb is common in Thailand, it would make sense for Thai English teachers to get the tb test. Let me say again, that I’m talking about native English speakers who come here to teach English. I’ve been here for 10 years, and I’ve never heard of anyone with TB here, much less a Westerner. I question the need to give people unnecessary x-rays. Whether tb is common in Asian, non-English-speaking countries is irrelevant to the topic at hand.
All foreign workers must get a TB chest x-ray, regardless of what they do in Taiwan. It’s not racist, just a policy that the wonderful ROC gov’t has. They could give a rat’s ass about whether your from Thailand or Canada.
If they had 2 seperate kinds of foreign exams, it would strain relations with the countries forced to do more and pay more.
Okami
Okami,
I work for the MOEA. From what I can tell, I won’t even need to get the health check for my arc extention. Is that consistent or fair? Not really. But Taiwan isn’t known for its fairness or consistency.
Some people even have to have their poopoo checked for bugs. nasty! But others don’t. Again, not very consistent. I still think that people who have been living in Taiwan for the past year should be made exempt from the tb test (unless of course their Chinese counterparts have to tested for tb each year as well). But that’s just my humble opinion.
Greg