Book review: Building Materials: Product Emission and Combustion Health Hazards, by Kathleen Hess-Kosa, available from CRC Press at the end of February 2017. ISBN 9781498714938

Major topic areas include: Polymers in Construction. Molded and Extruded Plastics. Foam. Rubber. Plasticizers. Plastic Stabilizers, Pigments, and Fire Retardants.

Functional Building Materials. Rough-in and Dry-in Construction Components. Interior Construction Components. Finish-out Construction Components. Surface Applications, Glues, and Mortar. Natural Materials. Engineered Composite Materials. Recycled Materials.

Product Emissions and Green Buildings. Product Emission Testing. Green Building Requirements. Glossary. Appendices.

A New Guide to Building Material Emissions & Combustion Product Health Hazards

Daniel Friedman

In “The Graduate” McGuire says to Benjamin “I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? Plastics.”

In the U.S. more than 85,000 industrial chemicals are assumed to be safe until proven dangerous - the opposite of E.U. policy, and a policy good for short term corporate health though bad for long term public health.

Few of these chemicals have been studied by independent experts. The U.S. EPA has banned the use of just 5 of these 85,000 chemicals. Companies and consumers wanting to know if the products they use are safe are on their own.

Hess-Kosa’s book provides a critical map to that wilderness, a searchlight of clear, expert information that guides the reader through natural and synthetic building materials, their uses, properties, emissions, and risks.

Consumers have recently worried about emissions from some building materials that include formaldehyde, off gassing Chinese drywall, laminate flooring, and vinyl window odors.

Not all smells are dangerous, and not all dangerous materials smell. Some building products look good, but fail early, or allow leaks exposing building occupants mold or sewage contamination. Others offer up, as Hess-Kosa notes, a brew of organic toxins, silent killers, toxic metals, or more subtle hazards.

For a sensitive organism such as a developing embryo, exposure to even a single molecule of a hormone-mimicking chemical can cause severe birth defects - androgynous ducks may be the least of it.

Toxins in plastics themselves or other toxins absorbed and concentrated by them are directly linked to cancers, birth defects, immune system defects, childhood development issues, hormone disruption: real and serious effects that point to a mismatch between the benefits of plastic products and human health.

Harmful in buildings and later in the landfill or dumped into the ocean, some apparently-innocent plastics and other materials are so persistent in the environment that they enter the food chain, passing up from tiny creatures into the food that we eat.

This book is heir to Rachel Carlson (Silent Spring) and Theo Colborn (Our Stolen Future) but with a new turn: from building foundation to chimney top the author describes hundreds of classes and specific building materials, explaining their potential hazards.

Everyone who builds, renovates, enters, works in or lives in buildings, as well as anyone who studies the safety of the building environment will find this work invaluable.

- Daniel Friedman, editor, InspectApedia.com

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Other books by Hess-Kosa

• Hess-Kosa, Kathleen. Environmental Sampling for Unknowns. CRC Press, 1996.
• Hess-Kosa, Kathleen. Indoor Air Quality: The Latest Sampling and Analytical Methods. CRC Press, 2016.
• Hess-Kosa, Kathleen. Environmental Site Assessment: Phase I : A Basic Guide. CRC Press, 2007.
• Hess-Kosa, Kathleen. EH&S Auditing Made Simple, Government Institutes; 2 edition (September 1, 2000), ISBN-10: 0865877017 ISBN-13: 978-0865877016

Disclosure & Discount Coupon for This Book

The author of the book I review here, Kathleen Hess-Kosa, has worked as certified industrial hygienist since 1983, and is the CEO of of Omega Environmental Consulting, Inc., a Texas environmental consulting firm. She is an admired personal acquaintance whom I met through our joint service on the Indoor Environment Committee of AIHA, the American Industrial Hygiene Association. We share a common interest in approaches to the testing, diagnosis, and remedy of indoor environment or indoor air quality problems that place a high value on the combination of sound science, good practices, common sense, and high ethical standards.

The 20% coupon shown here loads a PDF from CRC Press offering a discount for people who order this book online.

InspectAPedia is an independent publisher of building, environmental, and forensic inspection, diagnosis, and repair information provided free to the public - we have no business nor financial connection with any manufacturer or service provider discussed at our website.

The author of this review, Daniel Friedman, currently editor of InspectApedia.com, has worked as computer design engineer, builder, building inspector, and environmental inspection and test consultant in several countries. He researches and writes on the indoor environment, building failures and construction methods.

Source citations & examples of pertinent research supporting the opinions of the reviewer

• Andersson, M. A., M. Nikulin, U. Köljalg, M. C. Andersson, F. Rainey, K. Reijula, E. L. Hintikka, and M. Salkinoja-Salonen. "Bacteria, molds, and toxins in water-damaged building materials." Applied and Environmental Microbiology 63, no. 2 (1997): 387-393.
• Arizona State University, “Impact of plastics on human health and ecosystems”, 20 March 2010, citing Rolf Walden, ASU, http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100320/Impact-of-plastics-on-human-health-and-ecosystems.aspx
• Andrews, Gianna, “Plastics in the Ocean Affecting Human Health”, Montana State University & Carelton College, http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/plastics.html
• Babrauskas, Vytenis, and Richard D. Peacock. "Heat release rate: the single most important variable in fire hazard." Fire safety journal 18, no. 3 (1992): 255-272
• Carson, Rachel, Silent Spring, [book for sale at Amazon] Mariner Books; Anv edition (October 22, 2002), ISBN-13: 978-061824906.
  Amazon.com Review:
  Silent Spring, released in 1962, offered the first shattering look at widespread ecological degradation and touched off an environmental awareness that still exists. Rachel Carson's book focused on the poisons from insecticides, weed killers, and other common products as well as the use of sprays in agriculture, a practice that led to dangerous chemicals to the food source. Carson argued that those chemicals were more dangerous than radiation and that for the first time in history, humans were exposed to chemicals that stayed in their systems from birth to death. Presented with thorough documentation, the book opened more than a few eyes about the dangers of the modern world and stands today as a landmark work.
• Clemons, Craig. "Wood-plastic composites in the United States: The interfacing of two industries." Forest Products Journal 52, no. 6 (2002): 10.
• Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski, John Peter Meyers., Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival?--A Scientific Detective Story, [book for sale at Amazon], Plume-Penguin Publishing, 1997, ISBN 0-452-27414-1., ISBN13: 9780452274143.
  
  This book is a seminal work on endocrine disrupters (chemical contaminants having impact at extremely low levels in the environment).
  Colburn, Theo, re: Endocrine Disrupter Exchange [https://endocrinedisruption.org/], Dr. theo Colborn From that website:
  
  The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Inc. is the only organization that focuses primarily on the human health and environmental problems caused by low-dose and/or ambient exposure to chemicals that interfere with development and function, called endocrine disrupters ... TEDX's work focuses on the endocrine system, which is the exquisitely balanced system of glands and hormones that regulates such vital functions as body growth, response to stress, sexual development and behavior, production and utilization of insulin, rate of metabolism, intelligence and behavior.
  
  Hormones are chemicals such as insulin, thyroxin, estrogen, and testosterone that interact with specific target cells. The interactions occur through a number of mechanisms, the easiest of which to conceptualize is through a lock and key arrangement.
• Crews, David. "Temperature-dependent sex determination: the interplay of steroid hormones and temperature." Zoological science 13, no. 1 (1996): 1-13.
• Dyer, Robert F., and Victor H. Esch. "Polyvinyl chloride toxicity in fires: hydrogen chloride toxicity in fire fighters." JAMA 235, no. 4 (1976): 393-397.
• Howard, Clare, "Special Report: Syngenta's campaign to protect atrazine, discredit critics", Environmental Health News, 17 June 2013, Editor in Chief Marla Cone - mcone@ehn.org, retrieved 3/25/14, original source: http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/atrazine
• Jaakkola, J. J., Pia K. Verkasalo, and Niina Jaakkola. "Plastic wall materials in the home and respiratory health in young children." American Journal of Public Health 90, no. 5 (2000): 797.
• Mølhave, Lars. "Indoor air pollution due to organic gases and vapours of solvents in building materials." Environment International 8, no. 1-6 (1982): 117-127.
• Pacheco-Torgal, Fernando, Said Jalali, and Aleksandra Fucic, eds. Toxicity of building materials. Elsevier, 2012.
• Seltenrich, Nate. "New link in the food chain? Marine plastic pollution and seafood safety." Environmental health perspectives 123, no. 2 (2015): A34-A41.
• Urbina, Ian, “Think Those Chemicals Have Been Tested?”, The New York Times, 13 April 2013 [Number of chemicals banned by the US EPA]

...

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Citations & References

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