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進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Young students promote environmental awareness
Elementary-school students wear homemade gas masks at the Children’s Environmental Summit at National Taiwan University in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA
GAS MASKS: The nation’s youth have been polled on their opinions of air pollution, with 85.6% saying Taiwan has a severe problem, but most are hopeful for change
By Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter
Hundreds of primary-school students gathered to display gas masks they made at convention in Taipei yesterday to promote environmental awareness among children, after Far EasTone Telecommunications Co released a poll on the public understanding and attitudes toward air pollution, targeting students between the third and sixth grades.
Eighty-five percent of primary-school children said the nation’s air pollution is severe and rank Taipei, Kaohsiung and New Taipei City as the nation’s most polluted municipalities, according to the opinion poll.
Of the children interviewed, 85.6 percent said Taiwan’s air pollution is severe and 27.3 percent said it is very severe, according to the poll.
According to the poll, 47.4 percent of children understand what PM2.5 is — airborne pollutants measuring less than 2.5 micrometers — compared with 21.5 percent of adults.
Children were more optimistic than adults over air pollution control efforts, with 55.6 percent of children saying that air quality could be substantially improved within five years, while 50.3 percent of adults said that such improvement could not occur in 10 years, according to the poll.
Children are more active in battling air pollution, as they perform 4.8 pollution reduction tasks every week, such as taking public transport or studying environmental issues, compared with adults, who complete 3.2 such tasks every week, the poll said.
National Taiwan Normal University environmental education professor Wang Ching-ming （汪靜明） said the results suggested effective environmental education efforts and positive environmental protection prospects, as children could be more knowledgeable and active than adults in reducing air pollution.
The poll also showed that children say Taipei has the worst air quality in the nation, followed by Kaohsiung and New Taipei City, but the Environmental Protection Administration identifies Chiayi City, Yunlin County and Kinmen County as the most affected municipalities due to elevated PM2.5 levels last year.
Wang said that the poll gauged student’s subjective perception of air pollution rather than presenting objective pollution, data, as units of measurement by environmental agencies, such as dissolved oxygen, pH-levels and PM2.5 concentration, are too scientific for environmental education among children.
Meanwhile, it is the difference between children’s subjective opinions and objective data that could prompt more students to study pollution statistics, he said.
A group of students from Changhua County said that their homegrown watermelon plants would not bear fruit and had absorbed rainwater that smelled of motor oil.
Some children said they made gas masks for their grandparents, who have high levels of heavy metals in their bodies.
The poll collected 1,087 valid samples from primary-school students between third and sixth grade in Taipei, New Taipei City, Hsinchu City and Taichung, as well as 2,174 valid samples from adults aged over 20 nationwide, with a 95 percent of confidence level and a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
Students wearing homemade gas masks hold up signs protesting bad air quality at the Children’s Environmental Summit in Taipei yesterday.They also chanted slogans against air pollution. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
