Safe Homes-Safe Housing

The Health Impact of Indoor Air Quality From Green Building Products

by Mr. Artemiss, BPS, CIE, CMR, CMC

One of the hardest things in today's modern world is to find Safe Housing. Safe Housing is basically the ability to live in a home without having to deal with toxic products that are being installed or used in the home. In today's world, we find all kinds of problems with construction of modern day houses.

Safe and affordable housing is the primary issue for people with Asthma, Allergies and the Chemically Sensitive. In dealing with this issue for the last 15 years, finding clean housing is almost impossible. We receive phone calls on a weekly basis from individuals looking for Safe Housing.

We find that people with Asthma, Allergies and the Chemcially Sensitive that were in safe housing had significantly higher levels of real life functioning on a daily basis. They were able to work and had a higher quality of life style. People who live in safe housing have a less stressfull and can cope on a daily basis compared to other individuals living in toxic housing.

Houses are being constructed using particle or mdf board which is Leed Certified but is toxic to individuals with Asthma, Allergies of the Chemically Sensitive. If you look at the Leed Certifications you can find a mire of paper work for their certification. Here is an example:

MR Credit 7: Certified Wood:
Fiber from certified wood sources can be combined with non certified fiber in composite wood products. The certified fiber content of these composite wood
products incorporated into the project may also be included in the quantity of certified wood included in the project.

So in reality, you do not know what you are getting except a chemical residue and odor inside of your new home. It is almost as bad as the Chinese Drywall problem because of the hurricanes in the last couple of years in Florida.  We need to get a better handle on this so called cerification program which people think is Green. It might be Carbon Green but it sure is far from being Green For Humans. What good is Carbon Green when the people it was designed to help are made sick from the contents of the so called Green product.

Clearly, we are all in need of safe housing for individuals with Asthma, Allergies or the Chemically Injured If things are not improved there will be a higher increase of of chemically injured and develop MCS. We all need to do our part to make and use Green Safe Products only.