STREAMS / STRANDS / STRINGS
BUILDING MATERIALS
All sorts of embedded issues
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Toxins associated with building materials
People live a whole lot of their life in close proximity to building materials, but very little is known about the toxins associated with building materials. Building materials have been created to have material properties and to be low cost to produce and install, with the analysis of environmental health a very low priority. Time was when human beings spent most of their lives in close proximity to nature, but in the past few generations more and more time is being spent inside buildings.
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Many asthmagens are common ingredients of building products
Asthma is a complex, heterogeneous disease, often of multifactorial origin. Asthma rates in the USA have been rising since at least 1980.
These rates are rising despite the proliferation of asthma control strategies, including indoor air quality programs. The Centers for Disease
Control (CDC) reported that the number of people diagnosed with asthma grew by 4.3 million during the last decade. Nearly 26 million
people are affected by chronic asthma, including over eight million children. As asthma affects more people, new strategies need to be
considered. Among asthma risk factors, health organizations have identified hundreds of substances that can cause the onset of asthma.
Many of these asthmagens are common ingredients of building products like insulation, paints, adhesives, wall panels and floors. This
paper identifies asthmagens found in building products, how people can be exposed to these substances, and what is known and yetto-be
known about the impacts of these exposures. Key strategies to minimize exposures to asthmagens in building materials include
understanding the composition of building materials; using product ingredient disclosure tools such as those recognized in LEED v4;
and, modifying product certification standards, restricted substance lists, indoor environmental testing protocols, and green building
incentives
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GreenBuild-asthmagen-research-paper
'http://truevaluemetrics.org/DBpdfs/Products/BuildingMaterials/GreenBuild-asthmagen-research-paper.pdf'
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Open PDF ...
GreenBuild-asthmagen-research-paper
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Building materials have a big impact on the environment when they are being produced, and there are continuing impacts as long as the products remain installed as part of the building.
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