more : How our buildings are making us sick -

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comment, fwd:

> For fans of indoor environments, please see stunning IOM report

> “Climate, the Indoor Environment, and Health†(Jn 2011), funded by US

> EPA. Online at *Climate Change, the Indoor Environment, and Health

> (2011) <http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13115>*

>

> IOM found that indoor environments are already damaging health and

> learning, that indoor exposures are 100 to 1,000 more intense indoors

> than out, and recommended preventing exposures.

>

see also:

> Great resource about what we can do - Dr. Dick 's PBS

> " Designing Healthy Communities " series

> http://designinghealthycommunities.org/about/

How our buildings are making us sick.

<http://www.forbes.com/sites/amywestervelt/2012/08/08/how-our-buildings-are-maki\

ng-us-sick/>

As a culture, Americans spend 90 percent of our time indoors, and in the

majority of cases the air quality inside is far worse than it is outside.

The largely terrible indoor air quality is attributed to the offgassing

of chemicals from various building materials–paint, carpet, countertops,

dry wall, you name it and chances are it’s got some sort of toxic

ingredient. The thing is, in many cases those chemicals are mandated by

either building codes or performance codes. Curtains need to be covered

in flame retardant to prevent fire spread, for example, and certain

other materials have chemicals added to them in order to make them more

flexible, more rigid, or more rugged.

Today, architecture firm Perkins + Will released a report

<http://transparency.perkinswill.com/assets/whitepapers/NIH_AsthmaReport_2012.pd\

f>

looking at just one aspect of this dilemma: asthmagens in the built

environment. The report compiles the bulk of the peer-reviewed research

available on the subject, and the result is a single document that

illustrates the problem, the gaps in the research, and the potential

solutions. The report concludes....