Sick Building Syndrome
- You probably associate
with older buildings in their lead paints, asbestos ducting and possibly radon
gas within the crawl space and you are partially correct. Whilst not dismissing
the danger of these substances in older buildings, most sick buildings are the
newer ones built from around the 60's. This is because material suppliers, in
order to maximise profit with little regard to health consequences, have
substituted older natural products with synthetic substitutes. These new
materials consist of toxic petrochemicals, which can be found in vinyl
tiles/wall coverings, adhesives, paints, particleboard and even the binder in
fibreglass insulation. The chemical compound in these materials are, for
example, formaldehyde, PCB, PVC, Benzene, trichlorothane which constitute a
fraction of hundreds more, which fall into some general categories. These are
Persistent Organic Pollutants, Organochlorines, Dioxins, PCB's, PVC's and other
plasticizers.
The petrochemical compounds in modern building materials
out-gas continuously for months, even years after installation. They are called
volatile organic compounds or VOC's, which are either breathed or
absorbed through the skin. The resulting health problems range from asthma,
headaches and fatigue to memory loss, cancer and at extremes even death.
The direct environmental impact of conventional paints is
easy to analyze, when 70% of the volume of solvent in gloss paint
evaporates it's petroleum solvent into the immediate atmosphere as it dries.
This saturation leaves a strong pungent smell, which decreases in time as the
paint hardens over the following weeks in it's drying process. Besides wasting a
non-renewable resource and contributing to the increased levels of ozone
depleting and greenhouse gases, the health effect to not only the painter and
client cannot be underestimated when the World Health Organisations own cancer
research agency deemed it is a carcinogenic. The water borne alternatives
offered by the major manufacturers contain more chemicals on a par to their
synthetic oil-based counterparts, which are usually based on polymers such as
PVC. These are made from incredibly poisonous monomers in this case chloride,
considered harmful even at concentrations of a few parts per million and also
commonly contain some slow evaporating solvents. A dubious labelling as a "green
alternative product"? The use of plastics as a manufacturing component and
finish in certain wall
coverings reduces the walls ability to breath dramatically,
therefore trapping any atmospheric pollution within the room that is being
out-gassed.
However, to reduce the risk of poisoning many of us
pay a premium price to avoid concentrates of them in our food (organic) and drinking
water (bottled). But what about the air we breath? You may argue that you can't control
all the air, true. But what is important is the indoor air pollution, which in
some buildings is up to several times more toxic than the air outside. This
concentration of indoor airborne poisons is sick
building syndrome. A
toxin free living space is important, as cleaning yourself of toxins will
do very little if you are absorbing large amounts from your home or work place
environment.
Allergies are an external sign of a very oversensitive
reaction of the human central nervous system to substances alien to the body.
The potential allergy inducers in traditional paints and varnishes exist in the
form of solvents (white spirit, isoalipates), synthetic resins (epoxy resins,
iso-cyanats, polyurethanes). It must be noted that even natural paints can cause
an allergic reaction to certain individuals, with the use of natural plant based
solvents.
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