Toxic Building Materials in Residential Construction

toxic building materials
Toxic Building Materials in Residential Construction A reporter from Angie’s List Magazine just asked for my opinion on toxic building materials in residential construction… and while writing my response I realized there was some valuable information to share. Hopefully Angie’s List Magazine will decide to run the piece. Here is my response to some great
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Safer Foam Insulation – Reducing Dangerous Flame Retardants

safer foam insulation
Safer Foam Insulation Flame Retardants Doing More Harm than Good? Safer foam insulation is on its way to becoming a reality in the US construction industry. Momentum for eliminating unnecessary flame retardants from buildings is growing exponentially. The fire safety benefit isn’t adding up to the known hazards associated with halogenated flame retardants. Leading the
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Tips for a Healthy Home – Keep the Water Out!

tips for a healthy home
Tips for a Healthy Home – Keep It Dry Keep Water Out Excess moisture is at the center of many problems relating to durability and indoor air quality. If we build structures that won’t rot or support mold growth, we will both increase the longevity of those buildings and reduce the health risks of living
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Tips for Building Healthy Home – Minimize VOCs

tips for building a healthy home
Tips for Building Healthy Home – Part 1: Minimize VOCs Minimize Exposure to Formaldehyde Formaldehyde is one of the most common industrial chemicals and is widely used as a component of building products, upholstery, carpeting, etc. and classified as a human carcinogen. Formaldehyde’s other health impacts include respiratory problems; eye, nose, and throat irritation; allergic
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Healthy Building Science Green Festival

Healthy Building Science Green Festival
Healthy Building Science Green Festival – San Francisco The Healthy Building Science Green Festival  booth two weekends ago was a total hit! After the Green Festival we all took a big breathe and dove right into festivities and events for GreenBuild 2012… now we await the air quality results. It’s been an amazing 10 days. The
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Tips for Building a Healthy Home – Radon and Combustion Gases

building a healthy home
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
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Toxins in Household Goods – Where can consumers turn?

toxins in household goods
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
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Building Envelope Commissioning (BECx)

building envelope commissioning
“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
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Healthy Building Materials – How green can you go?

Healthy Building Materials
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
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Sick Building Materials Smell Bad – What if it’s too late and the building stinks?

Sick building
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
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