Is your home making you sick? In this episode, healthy homes expert Kristin Glossner explains the importance of healthy materials and the incorporation of nature into the built environment—the place where we spend 90% of our time. Kristin takes hosts Michelle and Alina room-by-room through a home to explain the associated health risks in each space. How can designers start prioritizing occupant health and mitigate the effects of unhealthy buildings? Every little detail, whether it be natural lighting, fresh air, nontoxic materials, or water quality, all have an impact on human health and should be considered alongside other principals of environmentalism and sustainability. This episode was made possible by a Mass Save Community Education Grant.
Release date: August 29, 2024
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Show Notes:
The transcript for this episode can be found here.
Notes from this episode:
Certified Passive House Consultant
99% Invisible podcast episode about Octagon Houses
Old Colony Harvard School of Public Health study
References on Kristin’s research:
Cedeño-Laurent, J.G., Williams, A., MacNaughton, P., Cao, X., Eitland, E., Spengler, J. and Allen, J. (2018). Building Evidence for Health: Green Buildings, Current Science, and Future Challenges. Annual Review of Public Health, [online] 39(1), pp.291–308. https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044420
Dovjak, M. and Kukec, A. (2019). Creating Healthy and Sustainable Buildings: An Assessment of Health Risk Factors.
Frumkin, H., Bratman, G.N., Breslow, S.J., Cochran, B., Kahn Jr, P.H., Lawler, J.J., Levin, P.S., Tandon, P.S., Varanasi, U., Wolf, K.L. and Wood, S.A. (2017). Nature Contact and Human Health: A Research Agenda. Environmental Health Perspectives, [online] 125(7). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28796634/
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Kim, D.H. and Bluyssen, P.M. (2020). Clustering of office workers from the OFFICAIR study in The Netherlands based on their self-reported health and comfort. Building and Environment, [online] 176, p.106860. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132320302195
National Center for Healthy Housing (2008). Background on the Importance of Healthy Housing for Older Adults Prepared by the National Center for Healthy Housing. [online] Available at: https://nchh.org/resource-library/fact-sheet_background-on-the-importance-of-healthy-housing-for-older-adults.pdf [Accessed 14 Aug. 2024].
Petrovic, E.K., Vale, B. and Pedersen Zari, M. (2017). Materials for a Healthy, Ecological and Sustainable Built Environment: Principles for Evaluation. [online] Duxford, United Kingdom; Cambridge, Ma, United States: Woodhead Publishing Elsevier. Available at: https://www-sciencedirectcom.ezproxy3.lhl.uab.edu/book/9780081007075/materials-for-a-healthy-ecological-andsustainable-built-environment [Accessed 12 Mar. 2022].
The New School: Healthy Materials Lab (n.d.). Why Healthy Materials. [online] Healthy Materials Lab. Available at: https://healthymaterialslab.org/why-healthy-materials [Accessed 3 Apr. 2022].
U.S. Green Building Council (n.d.). Better Building Materials. [online] Available at: https://prod-hml.s3.amazonaws.com/news/Better_Building_Materials_Guide.pdf [Accessed 20 Apr. 2022].
U.S. Green Building Council (n.d.). Better Building Materials. [online] Available at: https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2014- 08/documents/sick_building_factsheet.pdf [Accessed 29 Apr. 2022].
Welch, L.S. (1991). Severity of health effects associated with building-related illness. Environmental Health Perspectives. [online] Available at: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.919567 [Accessed 5 Mar. 2022].
Valette, J., Schettler, T. and Wolfe, M. (2014). Asthamagens in Building Materials: The Problem & Solutions. [online] Healthy Building Network. Available at: https://healthybuilding.net/uploads/files/gb2014-asthmagen-paper.pdf [Accessed 6 May 2022].
