PART 1: Residential Wiring Problems Caused by Older or Mis-Wired Systems As a former carpenter and electrician, I have seen and worked with a lot of building wiring, both residential and commercial.  As an inspector I have seen many residential wiring errors and problems caused by older or improperly designed or installed electrical systems. Let

Tips for Building a Healthy Home If you are building a new home or significantly remodeling your existing home, then this article will help you target the biggest polluters in your home’s indoor environment. These tips for building a healthy home have been put together with the intent of helping those who do not have

Flame retardants creeping you out… For years a small (but growing) group of concerned scientists, designers, and public health advocates have been warning about the dangers of flame retardants. It may seem counterintuitive that flame retardants – intended to reduce risk of harm from fire – could be harmful themselves. However, according to many of

Toxins in Household Goods are the current norm. With the growing buzz concerning toxins in building materials and a push for more transparency, where can consumers turn? The answer:  Not enough places. Several factors contribute to this lack of information on toxins in household goods. One lies in the sheer number of ingredients involved. Significant

EMF Measurement and Mitigation in the Bedroom was an abstract written by Alex Stadtner and submitted to the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) for their Annual Educational Conference (AEC) & Exhibition in the “Be the Voice” program.  EMF Measurement and Mitigation in the Bedroom The electrification and digitalization of our society has lead to our

“Building Envelope Commissioning” or “Building Enclosure Commissioning” The terminology is so new we’re not sure which term will stick… so we’ll start with what we like. “Envelope” sounds more lovely than “enclosure.” “Building Envelope Commissioning (BECx) comes to the San Francisco Bay Area” For centuries we’ve understood air infiltration and moisture intrusion waste energy and

At Healthy Building Science we provide three primary services revolving around healthy building materials. 1) Bulk material testing. We cover this briefly in another blog post. 2) Building material research. Sometimes our clients are particularly interested in toxicity or resource conservation. Some clients concerned about climate change are asking for carbon footprint analysis in order

Sick Building Materials Smell Bad- What if it’s too late and the building stinks? At least once a week we get the following call… “We were so careful to only allow healthy materials in our project. But we just moved in and it stinks! We’re worried the building materials smell bad. Can you come test

First, I feel as though I must apologize for not writing more often. In an effort to make it more of a habit I’ve decided to simply write a quick post about pages from our website to share more about the services and reveal relevant stories. I’m starting with soil sampling for heavy metals, pesticides,

What if you could create electricity while you worked out? Well, it turns out you can. The following article about electricity generating bicycles was written by Warren Neilson Humans convert food energy (measured in calories) into chemical energy that is used by moving muscles. The body is about 20% efficient meaning that only 20% of