Sustainable Development and Society - GSA

Sustainable Development and Society
Creating a More Healthful,
Less Toxic Built Environment
By Arthur B. Weissman
Arthur B. Weissman, Ph.D., is President and CEO of Green Seal, Inc., an independent,
non-profit organization that identifies and promotes products and services that cause
less toxic pollution and waste, conserve resources and habitats, and minimize global
warming and ozone depletion.
As the manager of building facilities,
you have an enormous opportunity
to affect positively the health and
welfare of your workers, occupants, and
visitors. The products and systems that
have been designed into your building, as
well as the products and procedures you
put into place for operating and maintaining
your building, can either be a source of
toxins and other harmful health effects or
be neutral or even nourishing to human
health and the environment.
This article describes the basic connection
between products in the built environment
and human health and environment. We
will look first at how common products in
the built environment can be the source of
highly undesirable toxins and how good
alternatives can be found for them. Then
we will look at some data linking toxins in
the built environment to the health,
productivity, and welfare of workers and the
community. We will describe how
environmental standards can be developed
to promote alternatives to toxic products,
and look briefly at the methodology called
life-cycle assessment on which product
standards are based. Finally, we will explore
the benefits of life-cycle-based
environmental standards for the built
environment and show the linkages to
improved health, productivity, and welfare
of building occupants and the community at
large.
Basic materials and common products that
have become familiar features of our built
environment may nonetheless be a source
of toxins with potentially serious adverse
health effects. Contamination of building
ventilation systems resulting in
Legionnaire's Disease is a striking and
acute version of many quieter, more
insidious dangers in the buildings we
inhabit. Sources of contaminants and
toxins include not only heating, ventilating,
and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems but
also carpets, window furnishings,
wallboard, furniture, partitions, paints,
cleaners, fax and copier machines, etc. For
example, particleboard, which may be found
in doors and furniture, is usually bonded
together with urea formaldehyde, which
emits vapors of formaldehyde, a probable
human carcinogen. Paints may contain
petroleum distillates, also potentially
carcinogenic, as well as high levels of
volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can
cause respiratory distress or disease. Even
common surface or floor cleaners used
frequently in buildings can be a source of
reproductive toxins or endocrine disruptors
as well as VOCs.
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