Part 3: How Construction Materials and Dust Affect Indoor Air Quality

Harmful Particulates Can Circulate in Your Home’s Air

It is difficult to comprehend the fact that our homes may be the source of our sickness. New homes can be just as toxic as old homes. Regardless of the age of your home, most people that are sensitive to allergens are also sensitive to mold and chemicals. Over the years, home construction has evolved from sturdy organic materials such as wood, brick, stone, plaster, and cement to manufactured materials that require chemicals to make. Those chemicals many of which are classified as volatile organic compounds are typically used in plastics, binders and resins, composite wood, insulation, paint, coatings and adhesives, and other treatments for water resistance, stain repellents, or fire retardants. Home furnishings have evolved to meet safety, cost, and durability requirements. Materials such as particle boards, drywall, flame retardants, sealants, and finishes are all made using chemical processes. The most discussed harmful chemical is formaldehyde. The EPA has identified formaldehyde as a carcinogen. Today, there are standards on how much formaldehyde can be off-gassed from materials. These standards are not applied to many materials manufactured overseas in some countries where pollution is not regulated (China, India, etc.).

Building materials such as particle boards, drywall, and sealants are all made using a chemical process.

Over time, all homes will sustain water damage due to flooding, water leaks, humidity, and condensation. The newer materials have finite lifetimes and are not made to last forever. Moisture and time degrade most building materials. Keeping up with moisture problems in your home is your responsibility. You can read more about DIY mold inspecting on your home by reading “I know there is Mold in my Home”.

Six Common Building Shortfalls in New Homes

Regardless of the reputation of a builder, cutting corners in construction is often a fact of life when dealing with thin margins in the building trade. Most contractors optimize margins by using specialist sub-contractors. While they can cut personnel costs and provide efficiencies and scheduling benefits, subcontractors do not share accountability for future problems. In fact, issues often do not develop until after the home warranty has expired.

Chemicals in the Air

It is estimated that there are up to 80,000 chemicals documented by the EPA. Of these only 200 have been properly tested for safety. The EPA is actively working with state, local, and Tribal Governments to reduce air emissions of 188 air pollutants that are toxic to the environment. However, the EPA has only banned these 9 chemicals:

• Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) were mostly used in electrical equipment, transformers, and hydraulics, but also in applications like plasticizers and fire retardants.
• Halogenated Chlorofluoroalkanes were popular in air conditioning units, refrigeration, fire suppression, and insulation. The EPA banned them in 1978 to help protect the ozone layer, which shields us from harmful UV rays that can cause skin cancer.
• One of the worst of the dioxins, 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), was used as an herbicide, and an ingredient in Agent Orange, which was used during the Vietnam War.
• Asbestos was widely used for insulation, and in construction of cars, ships, and buildings. It is resistant to heat and fire, and it doesn’t conduct electricity. Asbestos is the primary risk factor for mesothelioma, a deadly form of cancer.
• Hexavalent Chromium was used in paint creating a hard metal coating. It was also used in cooling towers, so people were inhaling it through the air.
• Nitrites mixed with 4 banned chemicals for use in metalworking fluids, which lower the amount of heat and friction created by industrial machines. They are mixed mono and diamides of an organic acid, triethanolamine salts of a substituted organic acid, Triethanolamine salt of tricarboxylic acid, and tricarboxylic acid.

As one can imagine, the advocacy, persistence, and resources required to get a chemical banned are enormous. All these efforts to ban chemicals required resources and many years of research as well as litigation with the chemical producers. The chemical industry provides significant funding for lobbying efforts. The reality is that chemicals, old and new, are considered “innocent until proven guilty.”

Getting a particle count, while providing good information, is not entirely helpful because it does not specify which pollutants or chemicals are present in the air originating from the manufacturing of homes and furnishings. Flame retardants, paints, adhesives, particleboard, and drywall are all made using chemicals for one purpose or another.

Specific testing for mold, bacteria, heavy metals, and other contaminants will be required to confirm direct evidence of their presence.

The Power of Sense of Smell

There is one true test for the presence of many chemicals or microbial VOCs – using your nose. Chemicals can produce many industrial odors. Bacteria often creates a putrid smell. Mold often produces a musty smell. Odors are created by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that are generally found in low concentrations that humans and animals can perceive by their sense of smell. An odor is also called a “smell” or a “scent”, which can either be pleasant or an unpleasant odor.

Our sense of smell is the strongest, fastest detection, and most precise of the five senses. What differentiates smell from the other senses is the fact that we all detect odors the same way. Touch, hearing, sight, and taste sensations vary between individuals. In 2014, researchers from Rockefeller University determined that the receptors on nerve cells act differently to work in combination with activated nerves where they directly communicate to the brain.

Detail of the olfactory bulb (organ of smell) showing the nerve cells between the bulb and the olfactory epithelium

VOCs

Home furnishings, finishes, and flame retardants can contain Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) that off-gas inside your home over time. In addition, outdoor pollution will always be present in any home as the home breathes and typically has some pressurization that will draw air from the outside when entryways are open. VOCs and other gasses such as toluene, benzene, alkenes, aromatic hydrocarbons, esters, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, radon, combustion gases, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, ozone, and the ubiquitous formaldehyde are often present in trace amounts. It has been proven that there are more than 7,000 toxic substances identified in cigarette smoke. Additionally, toxic chemicals are often used in  household cleaning products

Gases

Pay attention to areas that may be responsible for moisture that can result in mold such as leaks and poor ventilation.

1. Interviews with Danny Gough, Energy Solutions Inc., Lewisville, NC. September 2019, January 2021.