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To reduce air pollution inside your home, insist on certain products
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It’s true that looks can deceive—especially in the case of a gorgeous new home. Many common construction materials, including wood, paint, sealants, and adhesives, and furnishings like carpeting and beds, release airborne chemical pollutants in a process called “outgassing.” A growing number of doctors and environmental analysts are linking these often undetected poisons to chronic headaches, nausea, allergies, asthma, and worse, pushing building contractors and homeowners to take harder look at the health hazards of building a home.
“Homeowners should know what goes into making the products, because usually in every facet of construction there is a healthier, safer way to do it,” said Andrew J. Pace, owner of Safe Building Solutions based in Wisconsin. “If homeowners were … educated about the chemicals and hazards that are found in typical building materials, the majority of buildings in the country would be healthy.”
After an illness several years ago increased her sensitivity to chemicals, Nancy Taylor, a building consultant living in Wilson, added nontoxic construction to her green-energy expertise. While building her own home, she developed new protocol for healthy living. “Nobody here had built with [nontoxic] materials before. I was the researcher and educator,” she said.
After considering the options, she decided to build her house out of recycled Styrofoam, an 85-percent post-consumer waste product that has already released any potentially harmful gases. She used natural limestone plaster on the interior walls, over which she applied a beeswax finish instead of paint. And by simply using more nails, she was able to eliminate the need for synthetic wood adhesives in her framing, flooring, and cabinetry.
Such measures aren’t drastic from a wider perspective. The National Cancer Institute estimates that 98 percent of all cancers may be linked to chemical exposure, and the National Academy of Sciences predicts that by 2010, 60 percent of U.S. citizens will develop symptoms of chemical sensitivity, including irritation of the eyes and mucous membranes, and dry skin, difficulty concentrating, headaches, dizziness, and nausea.
Monique Lai, a naturopathic physician in Jackson, explained that adhesives, linoleum, caulking agents, particleboard, paints, stains, and varnishes all emit toxic fumes, often classified as VOCs (volatile organic compounds), that may be unconsciously inhaled. The more common VOCs include formaldehyde, alcohol, styrene, benzene, and amines, and they can damage the central and peripheral nervous systems, causing memory loss, depression, irritability, fatigue, tremors, kidney damage, immunologic problems, and cancer. “Toxins affect different people differently,” Pace said. The key trigger for chemical sensitivity is formaldehyde, a human carcinogen widely used as a preservative and finish resin, and formaldehyde precursors, which can cause upper respiratory infections (rhinitis, pharyngitis, sinusitis), asthma, bronchitis, and persistent flu-like symptoms.
“I know the industry buzz right now is to reduce the amount of VOCs found in most building materials and finishes,” Pace said. “However, most VOCs are harmful to humans not because they are VOCs, but because they are toxic. The emphasis should be put on toxicity of products.” He says government regulation shows no concern for the toxicity of other chemicals. “What about acetone and ammonia, which are not VOCs and are exempted from government regulation, but are still highly toxic and still found in most zero-VOC paint formulas of major manufacturers?
“We’re fighting the entire paint and coating industry, which is using the presumption that low VOCs is healthier. We’re saying that it is not necessarily just the VOCs that are harmful, but the toxins—because there are VOCs that aren’t harmful, like pine terpene. You go into a pine forest in Teton Valley, the amount of ozone is higher and the amount of pine terpene in the air is higher, but it doesn’t mean it’s toxic.”
Typically, synthetic products and highly processed building materials contain more toxic ingredients than natural products or raw materials, explained Teton Valley-based builder Jerod Pfeffer. “When I got started in construction, I was using fiberglass insulation, foams, and plywood that have formaldehyde in them; we were working with toxic glues and paints that were outgassing; cutting toxic materials with saws, we were creating particulates that were affecting our lungs.
“Builders definitely know that what they’re working with is not friendly,” he continued. “Most builders don’t even call fiberglass ‘fiberglass’; they call it ‘itch,’ like, ‘Who’s going to put the itch in?’ And then cutting the foams, smelling the glues, builders have a sense that this is not healthy, but what is the alternative? Builders do what they know.”
Because most builders aren’t asking for healthy materials, manufacturers have been slow to respond, Pace said. Less toxic paints and wood finishes can be found in many mainstream hardware stores—consumers simply need to be aware of what they’re purchasing. “Homeowners are the driving force; they’re the ones paying the bills. If they’re going to pay x amount for paint or flooring, then they want to make sure it’s a healthy product. And it has a lot to do with the Internet, too. Nowadays, the average consumer is much more informed because of the ability to go online and do research.”
As homeowner demand for healthy materials increases, prices will become more competitive. But Taylor pointed out that although safe products are undeniably more expensive, the premium doesn’t compare to the medical costs of “living in a chemical soup. It can get very expensive, particularly when many of these chemicals are neurotoxins—they affect the way the brain works.” The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that medical care for major illness due to poor indoor air quality costs at least $1 billion a year. In the workplace, productivity loss due to all illnesses related to indoor air quality may be as high as $60 billion a year.
