After years of hard work and savings, you move into the new home of your dreams, complete with fresh paint, floor-to-ceiling windows and gallery-like light fixtures. But did you know that all of the above could cause health problems?
The scenario was discussed yesterday by a panel of interior design and architectural experts in Taipei at a press conference called “10 Common Mistakes in Interior Designs,” which called on people to be concerned about things other than cost when choosing building materials for their homes.
“When we started our research, we wanted to help people conserve energy in their homes,” said Jerry Chiou (邱繼哲), director of the Green Comfortable Healthy Association. “But we quickly began to ask ourselves why so much energy was being wasted. Why is there such a need for people to have dehumidifier or air purifiers? It was because of common mistakes people make when renovating their homes.”
Architect Kuo Ying-chao (郭英釗) said the mistakes included using toxic building materials, taking no precautions against mold and moisture, building houses that were not well-ventilated and installing traditional but energy-consuming light fixtures.
“In about 50 houses we surveyed, only 13 percent were within safety levels for formaldehyde [from building material adhesives], benzene and other volatile organic compounds,” said Chiang Shou-shan (江守山), a nephrologist at the Shin-Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital.
And while formaldehyde emitted from building materials could be reduced to a minimum with good ventilation in a matter of months, other substances could take three to 20 years to completely evaporate, Chiang said.
“One of my clients suffered liver failure after moving into his brand new, but formaldehyde-dense house for four months,” he said.
But those living in older buildings need not panic. Ventilation is key to avoiding problems, said Kuo, who designed one of Taipei’s most famous green buildings — the Beitou District Library.
“Even after you move into a new house, you may continue to buy things such as books or new curtains, which would contain formaldehyde. Maintaining good ventilation in the house can effectively lower the toxins to an acceptable level,” Kuo said.
Living in a healthy environment also means living green to reduce carbon emissions, panelists said.
“Some of my friends say that they want houses designed like hotels — I think in reality they are just too shy to say that they want houses designed like palaces, but when [you design a home like that], you wind up with a lot of things you don’t need,” Kuo said.
The more decorations — and thus more building materials — the more possible sources of toxins a house would contain, Chiang said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods