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Healthy or Safe Housing

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Brominated Flame Retardants Degree-day Values, Colorado Healthy House Developments Healthy House Notification
Healthy or Safe Housing Heat Pump and Geothermal Energy Interior Appointments Living Downstream
Nontoxic Home Paints and Sealants Pollution Sources Refrigeration Resources
Rolling Shutters, Rolladen Urban Environment Resources Web Links about this Area Household Electronics Search Engines

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Healthy or Safe Housing

The concept of healthy, safe, or non-toxic housing has long been a goal of people with such health conditions as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), but it now getting some serious recognition for our entire population. The goal of the healthy house concept is housing that does not contain materials that harm or worsen the health of the occupants. People with MCS cannot tolerate even very low levels of materials such as pesticides or many materials used in common building practice, such as formaldehyde, and often do not have the luxury of moving into just any available housing situation. But now, with medical research demonstrating physiological damage of the type that can lead a variety of respiratory tract disorders such as asthma at formaldehyde concentrations as low as 80 parts per billion, it is finally being realized that long-term exposure to many of these low-level toxic materials is a significant health hazard to "healthy" people.

It is important to note, that at present, the phrase " Healthy House" also means a number of different things to different people that may have little to do with non-injurious housing, such as wildlife habitat, good energy insulation, or "optimizing the energy of the house" or integrating the house into the community.

More recently, national concerns have been building about an increasing incidence of a wide variety of low-level chronic health and auto-immune conditions, such as asthma, autism, lupus, and attention deficit conditions, especially in children, throughout the general population. And these concerns are moving this issue of healthy housing into becoming a national public health issue for everyone in our society.

This page will concentrate on resources to develop a home that emphasizes both short- and long term indoor air quality to protect the health of the residents. This can be achieved by not using building materials, carpets or flooring that outgas a wide variety of manufacturing chemicals into the living space. Also, one does not use wood products which outgas toxic materials such as formaldehyde or any of several biocides, insecticides or Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOC's). Also, one definitely does not use combustion appliances such as gas stoves that outgas into the living spaces.

A concern that is attracting national attention is the problem of mold, such as in crawlways, basements and bathroom walls. There are several forms of mold that are very serious healths hazard to everyone that can build up unseen and the occupants become aware only after serious health problems develop. Plus, we have a recent distraction that some insurance companies are no longer covering mold damage in homeowner's insurance.

A most important consideration is that toxic chemicals such as insecticides are not to be used in the construction of interior spaces and No Smoking is allowed in or around the house (secondhand tobacco smoke, which is regarded as one hundred times more dangerous than asbestos, is a potent source of the oxidation products of some insecticides; yet medical researchers keep scratching their heads about why upwards of 60,000 nonsmokers die of secondhand tobacco smoke every year!) - has long been a serious concern for people with the health condition of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS).

For example, it is worth keeping in mind a few of the recognized toxic materials in most commercial carpets -

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Web Links about this Area

Here are links to a lot more information about many aspects of this issue. Also see the Alternative Energy Information page for links to a wide variety of information about various building subjects.

See a review of the book "The Healthy House" by John Bower -

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Paints and Sealants

A wide variety of paints and sealants, sometimes called "low VOC" or "zero VOC" are becoming available that outgas very little volatile materials and are often especially well tolerated by many people.

Here are links to some suppliers -

Many of these companies have low and no-voc paints and sealants in their inventory even though they may not advertise it or list it in their catalogs. Always ask!

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Nontoxic Home

Also see the section "The Nontoxic Home" in the following book -

Diet for a Poisoned Planet
David Steinman
Ballantine Books, 1990
ISBN 0-345-37646-7

The author makes the following points, circa 1990 -

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Pollution Sources

Here are links to information about various pollution sources if you are looking for a safer or less toxic place to live -

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Brominated Flame Retardants

The brominated flame retardants, such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), now are being regarded as a recently discovered class of long-lasting toxic chemicals that have potential for creating significant environmental and health problems. It is interesting that several European countries are developing regulations to control public exposure. Here are some links to more information.

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Household Electronics

Refrigeration Resources

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Living Downstream

Also note the book - "Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment" by Sandra Steingraber which is a synthesis of the data from the federal toxics-release inventory and the national cancer registry data combined with a study of worldwide patterns of cancer incidence. This study produces a detailed (and sad to say, dismal) picture of the consequences of the many toxics and carcinogens we are releasing into our everyday environment.



Search Engines

Here are several search engines in case you wish to do more research from this page -

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