Jan

Update from GIGA

Another milestone reached

By the end of 2011, GIGA eclipsed their own expectations, reaching 300 GIGA ranked materials. Now, you can find a range of materials from the most commonly sought material categories.

GIGA is SOW Asia’s first investee. GIGA’s aim is to transform the environment to be healthy and worth sustaining. They believe that improving China’s built environment will catalyze this change. Lowering the barriers for greener design and create market incentives for greener building materials, GIGA empowers users with ideas, information and solutions to incrementally move towards a cleaner and healthier future.

Leukemia link to home décor

A study of children with leukemia found that half came from homes decorated or furnished with materials which did not meet environmental standards.

Researchers in a project by Shanghai Children's Medical Center and Shanghai Environmental Protection Industry Association visited the homes of 30 children with leukemia last year. They discovered that at the time 15 of the children showed symptoms or were diagnosed with the disease, their homes contained furniture or were decorated with materials with excessive formaldehyde discharge.

In one case, the father and family members of a newborn boy with leukemia all worked as decorators.
"It is still difficult to say exactly what role formaldehyde plays in children's leukemia," said Xia Lin, an official from Shanghai Children's Medical Center. "It is definitely a risk, and we want to establish how much of a risk it is."