One of my greatest challenges of being involved in the green building and home world is keeping up with all of the acronyms and terms that appear on a daily basis. These include: FSC, LEED, VOC, Green label and the often-debated definition of the word sustainable. But one term, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) has been very important to me for many years. Even though the term IAQ has existed for over 50 years, we are now in the last decade realizing that the symptoms including itchy eyes, fatigue, allergies and the dreaded “my skin is on fire” are real and people are not making up or faking their illnesses. Many of the illnesses that we are contracting can be directly attributed to products in our homes and offices.
A recent article by Charles Weschler, a researcher at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute of Rutgers University, really addressed the world of Indoor Air Quality. He believes that our air quality changes on a daily basis in our home and work environments. This may be surprising to many but simply stated the IAQ of a building depends on the rate that we transport chemicals from outdoors to indoors and how these chemicals are consumed by the indoor chemistry of our buildings. An additional important factor is how these substances are treated by the building’s ventilation and air filtration systems. For the last few decades, substances such as formaldehyde, radon and asbestos have been tested but some compounds including many Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) still cannot be directly measured. We are facing some tough choices about the products that we use in our homes and businesses but the following facts provided in the paper by Charles Weschler will help improve the IAQ of your home or business and share some staggering statistics:
*Carpet, its backings and adhesives are a major source of indoor air pollution
*The United States uses more carpet than the European Union and Asia, combined
*Vinyl flooring is the most popular flooring choice behind carpet and some may contain phthalates.
*New substitutes have been developed to replace phthalates in vinyl but it is very difficult to determine by which manufacturer and when the change was actually implemented.
*Veneer on composite and plywood have replaced solid wood construction on many homes and products.
*The adhesive resin used in the manufacturer of many wood products contains formaldehyde and masking agents.
A recent article by Charles Weschler, a researcher at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute of Rutgers University, really addressed the world of Indoor Air Quality. He believes that our air quality changes on a daily basis in our home and work environments. This may be surprising to many but simply stated the IAQ of a building depends on the rate that we transport chemicals from outdoors to indoors and how these chemicals are consumed by the indoor chemistry of our buildings. An additional important factor is how these substances are treated by the building’s ventilation and air filtration systems. For the last few decades, substances such as formaldehyde, radon and asbestos have been tested but some compounds including many Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s) still cannot be directly measured. We are facing some tough choices about the products that we use in our homes and businesses but the following facts provided in the paper by Charles Weschler will help improve the IAQ of your home or business and share some staggering statistics:
*Carpet, its backings and adhesives are a major source of indoor air pollution
*The United States uses more carpet than the European Union and Asia, combined
*Vinyl flooring is the most popular flooring choice behind carpet and some may contain phthalates.
*New substitutes have been developed to replace phthalates in vinyl but it is very difficult to determine by which manufacturer and when the change was actually implemented.
*Veneer on composite and plywood have replaced solid wood construction on many homes and products.
*The adhesive resin used in the manufacturer of many wood products contains formaldehyde and masking agents.
For human health concerns, the toxicity of a product should be the most important element in our purchasing decision making process. The marketplace has become flooded with “greenwashing” and products claiming that they are eco friendly zero VOC and the tired overused, green. The terms are somewhat confusing but consumers should ask manufacturers or green product dealers to provide documentation and answer any questions in determining the toxicity levels of products that we plan to utilize in our homes and offices.
Norman Zboray can be reached at info@greenwithenvyhomestore.com
Indoor air quality should really be a top priority because this is one of the factors that can affect the productivity of people. Air quality improvement and maintenance systems should be checked periodically to make sure that the air quality allows for a conducive working environment.
Posted by: Clarice Fullington | 08/22/2011 at 09:00 AM