There are about four brands of China-made batteries available at the island's night markets and shops selling cheap goods largely from the mainland, Parliamentarian Shyh Jong-shyong from the opposition Kuomintang told reporters.

"Our investigation showed these batteries contain too much mercury, cadmium, and lead," Shyh told AFP.

"Foremost is the mercury issue. Generally speaking barries are required to contain mercury below the 0.28ppm-level. But out of the four brands, three contain mercury higher than 1ppm. One was even found to have contained 101 ppm of mercury, which is some 360 times higher than the safety levels," he said.

One hazardous battery can pollute 600 tonnes of water or one square meter of land, he warned.

While demanding the environmental authorities to increase recycling of used batteries, Hsu also accused customs officials of corruption in the smuggling of a massive amount of poor-quality batteries from China.

Each year some 2,000 tonnes of China-made batteries were smuggled into the island, which accounted for about 20 percent of the local market share, according to an investigation done by Shyh and the non-profit Environmental Quality Protection Fund.

TERRA.WIRE