Infants continuously exposed to incense smoke at home are more likely to show signs of slower development, a study by National Taiwan University’s (NTU) Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene said.
The infants took on average one to two months longer to develop gross motor skills, compared with other children, said institute director Chen Pau-chung (陳保中), who presented the research findings on Saturday at a forum held by NTU’s College of Public Health.
Babies who were continuously exposed to incense smoke had a 44 percent higher risk of being slow to learn to walk with support, compared with babies who were not exposed to smoke, while babies who were periodically exposed — such as during holidays and festivals — had a 26 percent higher risk, the study found.
Chen and his research team analyzed and compared the development of children who were continuously or periodically exposed to incense smoke at six and 18 months of age using data on 15,310 children collected via home visits and interviews by the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study — a longitudinal study of children born in 2005.
The effect on children’s development has to do with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, lead and other heavy metals found in incense, Chen said.
People are concerned about the health risks posed by cooking fumes, cigarette smoke, humidity, dust mites and other allergens and harmful substances, but incense smoke is also a risk factor, he said.
Burning incense at home is a religious practice, so it would be difficult to prevent it, Chen said.
He recommended burning incense only for short periods on holidays and festivals, and maintaining good air ventilation.
The effects of incense smoke on health are smaller than those of second-hand smoke and third-hand smoke, he added.
Another risk factor that is often overlooked is electric mosquito repellent tablets, he said, adding that the devices should not be kept on all night.
To avoid respiratory discomfort caused by humidity, Chen recommended closing the windows and using a dehumidifier to keep indoor humidity at 40 to 60 percent.
Additional reporting by CNA
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS