Building a Healthy House

One thing that really ticks me off is that it's more expensive to build a house that is conducive to the health of the occupants than to build a home that can make the occupants sick.

Plain and simple, that's not the way it should be! It should be easier and less expensive to build a healthy home!

It all boils down to materials and techniques: some materials are healthier than others, and some techniques can make a home healthier than others. And then there's the good ol' supply and demand thing: the products are too expensive because few people buy them and the cost of production is high. But few people buy them because they cost too much.

Wow! Where to start?

Well, I guess we should start at VOCs or, volatile organic compounds. VOCs, as defined by the EPA (Environmental Pollution Agency), are defined, in layman's terms, as substances which contribute to the creation of smog. The truth--that is, the reality when separated from the political--is that many substances besides those defined as VOCs by the EPA are chemically VOCs and can make people sick. According to chemists, a VOC is any organic compound that has a high enough vapor pressure under normal conditions to significantly vaporize and enter the atmosphere. Just because the EPA does not classify something as a VOC because it does not contribute to the smog doesn't mean it's not a VOC from the chemist's point of view.

A company called AFM Safecoat has an excellent explanation of VOCs which is presented here somewhat paraphrased for simplicity and clarity:

Zero VOC does not mean zero emissions, or even zero VOC. This is because the government allows the use of many chemicals which are actually VOCs but which do not cause smog...These are called "exempt compounds" because they ...do not count against the manufacturer as VOCs. The EPA allows these products to be marketed as "zero" VOC. It is important to noteote that government regulation of VOCs is not concerned with toxicity or health; it is based simply on the fact that some VOCs react with nitrous oxides and ultra violet light to form low level ozone, or smog. If the VOCs don't participate in this reaction, the government doesn't really care if they are toxic or not, and so they can be exempted from the VOC calculation.

And from the Best Paint Company web site:

Sometimes things aren't what they seem. Zero VOC does not mean zero emissions. The government allows paint companies to use some chemicals which are or contain VOC's, known as exempt compounds, and still claim their product(s) are Zero VOC. The government does not count exempt compounds, even though they are known VOC's as they are currently only concerned with the production of smog which depletes the Low-level ozone layer. If a chemical is a VOC or contains VOCs but doesn't create smog, it can still be toxic but exempt from Zero VOC considerations.

That new carpet smell, that new car smell? Those are all the result of volatile organic compounds offgassing their "stuff" into your air. You then breathe that air and you are poisoned to a greater or lesser degree. Just do a web search on "sick building syndrome" and you'll find some 360,000 pages on the topic. And that's just in English.

So, the mission of our house construction project was to eliminate VOCs wherever possible.

The first nasty chemical on the list to eliminate is formaldehyde. This substance is the single most prevalent chemical in construction and manufacture in general. The largest user of formaldehyde in the USA is the carpet industry. Formaldehyde is added in plywood, particle board, MDF (medium density fiberboard) most adhesives and resins, polymers, paints and finishes, foams, and the list goes on and on. Formaldehyde is cheap and effective. What better substance to use for profitability! Oh, you want health with that too? Uh, ohhhhhhh....

And be careful when people try to market a product as "free from urea formaldehyde." Well, it's true, they probably have gotten away from urea formaldehyde because no one--not even the workers--were able to be near it and not get sick. But, what they don't tell you is that they now use phenol formaldehyde.

Any way you slice it, formaldehyde is not good for humans. Although phenol formaldehyde is better than urea formaldehyde, it's still not good for you. As a result of this knowledge about formaldehyde, a more and more products are being made with MDI (methylene diphenyl diisocyanate).

The best way to handle this issue is to eliminate it from being used in the building envelope. The US Department of Energy defines building envelope as

..."a critical component of any facility since it both protects the building occupants and plays a major role in regulating the indoor environment. Consisting of the building's roof, walls, windows, and doors, the envelope controls the flow of energy between the interior and exterior of the building."

In our project, the focus was on the building envelope. We were willing to save money and use different products with undesirable ingredients as long as they were outside the envelope. No, it's not the ideal, but it was cost effective. For example, while the indoor paints were carefully chosen for their low toxicity, we were a bit more lenient with the outdoor paints.

So, inside, we use formaldehyde-free fiberglass for the insulation under the floor. All the OSB (oriented strand board) is encapsulated, or, in other words, covered securely so that no formaldehyde can outgas into the building envelope.

To give you an idea of what we went through, when we requested from our HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) contractor the MSDS (material safety data sheet) on all the products they would use in our house, they provided us with 68 pages of information! Reading every one, we were able to determine which ones (only 3) that would not be favorable. The contractor agreed to change each one!

How does one find out about all this stuff? By researching for two years and reading every MSDS for every component of our house. Suppliers are required by law to provide purchasers with the MSDS on any product they sell. The MSDS contains a description of every component that goes into a product. The MSDS has specific requirements as to what it must contain. Its intent is to convey both the physical hazards (pH, flashpoint, flammability, etc.) and the health hazards (carcinogenicity, teratogenicity [contribution to birth defects], etc.) of their chemicals to the end user. OSHA requires that the MSDS contain information on the following categories:

• Manufacturer's Name and Contact Information
• Hazardous Ingredients/Identity Information
• Physical/Chemical Characteristics
• Fire and Explosion Hazard Data
• Reactivity Data
• Health Hazard Data
• Precautions for Safe Handling and Use
• Control Measures

There is one thing to understand before you jump to the conclusion that the MSDS is the answer to everything: although a company is required to prepare and disclose the MSDS, the compnay can also declare an ingredient to be a trade secret, and, therefore is not required to disclose its contents!

Since building a healthy house and maintaining it in a healthy was has been the major thrust of our recent life, there is much more that can be said. But we'll do that in other sections of this site. So click around...