Join a conversation between Mary Cordaro, environmental consultant and certified Bau-Biologist, and author Jennifer Roberts, as they take you on a virtual walk-through of Cordaro’s own healthy home. Using video clips, they will show her ongoing “lab,” a 1950s Southern Californian house that she has been renovating over the past 18 years using principles that integrate Bau-Biologie and building science. In the process, they will highlight fundamental strategies for identifying and remediating common home-health problems.

After the talk, Jennifer will be signing copies of her three books, Good Green Homes, Good Green Kitchens and Redux. Find out more on the Events page.

Here’s what I wrote about the issue in Good Green Kitchens:

Radon and Stone

Radon is a colorless, odorless, radioactive gas derived from the natural decay of uranium in soil, rocks, and water. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States.

Radon is virtually always present at very low levels in outside air; it’s really only considered a health problem if it accumulates at high levels inside buildings. Although it is more prevalent in some regions than others, the U.S. EPA recommends that all homes below the third floor be tested for radon.

Can granite counters or other natural-stone materials used inside buildings emit enough radon to cause concern? It seems unlikely. The EPA states that “building materials rarely cause radon problems by themselves. In the United States, radon gas in soils is the principal source of elevated radon levels in homes.”

If you are concerned that stone materials in your kitchen might be producing radon, you can have your home tested for radon; inexpensive, easy-to-use short-term testing kits are available online and from hardware stores. If the results show elevated radon levels, have an independent radon-testing laboratory conduct a more accurate, longer-term test. Make sure the lab is certified by your state and not affiliated with a radon-services company that sells or installs mitigation equipment. If the lab’s results also indicate high levels of radon, work with them to pinpoint the source. Chances are it will be the soil, not your home’s building materials or furnishings.

Homes found to have high levels of radon can be retrofitted with radon mitigation systems installed by experienced contractors. The EPA says the cost of reducing radon in a house ranges from about $800 to $2,500, depending on how the home was built and the extent of the radon problem.

For more information, go to www.epa.gov/radon, or call the National Radon Information Line at 800.SOS.RADON.

© 2006 Jennifer Roberts. All rights reserved. Originally published in Good Green Kitchens.

Multifamily Green Building Guidelines

If you design, build, develop or own multifamily residential buildings in California, check out the 2008 edition of the Multifamily Green Building Guidelines. Just released by StopWaste.Org, the Guidelines provide comprehensive technical information about how to build and retrofit multifamily green buildings. The Guidelines were originally released in 2004; this new edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect advances in green building practices and products.

I served as the editor of this 242-page book, the nation’s most comprehensive source of information about multifamily green buildings. You can download an electronic copy for free at www.StopWaste.org  or you can buy a hard copy at www.BuildItGreen.org.

I served as the editor of this Green Rehab guide. It’s filled with cost-effective tips and strategies for making multifamily rental buildings more energy efficient and healthy.

California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted regulations in April 2007 that will reduce formaldehyde emissions from particleboard, hardwood plywood and medium density fiberboard (MDF) sold in California. Formaldehyde is routinely used as a binder in these products and many other building materials and furnishings. 

No-added formaldehyde cabinets made by Neil Kelly Cabinets. Photo: Linda Svendsen for Good Green Homes.

California’s new regulations on formaldehyde emissions will make breathing easier 

The State of California, the U.S. EPA, the World Health Organization and many other health and environmental agencies have concluded that exposure to airborne formaldehyde increases the risk of cancer as well as having other non-cancer health effects, including eye, nose and respiratory irritation and asthma.

CARB’s regulations will be phased in over the next five years, and by 2012 will set the most stringent restrictions on formaldehyde emissions in the world.

Composite wood products are found throughout our homes and are particularly ubiquitous in kitchens, where they are used for cabinets, shelves, countertop substrates and more. While CARB’s regulations are good news for public health in California and beyond, they won’t go into full effect for a few years.

In the meantime, here are some tips for reducing formaldehyde emissions in your kitchen and other rooms:

• Keep using your old cabinets. Formaldehyde emissions diminish over time, so your existing cabinets will likely have very low or undetectable emissions compared to new formaldehyde-based products.
• Buy old cabinets. Building material reuse stores are often overstocked with old cabinets taken out of people’s homes when they remodel. Make sure any cabinets you buy are sturdy and not contaminated with mold or lead-based paint. Hardware stores sell swabs for on-the-spot lead testing.
• Choose new cabinets, shelves and countertop substrates made from no-added formaldehyde materials. Solid wood and metal are two options. Also, a few particleboard, MDF and plywood manufacturers, including Columbia Forest Products and Sierra Pine, have stayed ahead of the regulatory curve and already make no-added formaldehyde products.
• Eliminate cabinets altogether or reduce the number in your home. Instead of cabinets, consider open shelves or freestanding furniture made of solid wood or metal.
• Seal exposed surfaces and edges of formaldehyde-based particleboard, interior-grade plywood and MDF with a zero-VOC sealant such as AFM’s Safecoat Safe Seal. 

©2007 Jennifer Roberts. Originally published in Good Green News.

In June, I had the honor to serve as a judge for a unique design competition hosted by the California chapter of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)–USA.

The competition, Building a Sustainable World: Life in the Balance, challenged designers from around the globe to develop concepts for healthy, vibrant communities that address climate change and reverse, rather than add to, environmental damage and social injustice.

At a weekend symposium in Los Angeles, the 12 finalists presented their concepts, all of which tackled environmental and social challenges of enormous scope. Their moving, often ingenious visions filled me with hope for the possibility of a global shift to a restorative future.

First prize was awarded to a team from Fiji, Toby Kyle, Chris Cole and Kamineli Vuadreu, for their Vakabauta Village concept that focuses on the needs of low-income Fijians living in dilapidated temporary housing.

Second prize went to the Brisbane, Australia, team of Gall & Medek Architects and Team DES for a proposal focusing on climate-adaptive strategies, technological innovation and socio-cultural change projected over 50 years for the city of Boonah, Australia.

Third prize went to Wallace Roberts and Todd, LLC of Philadelphia for The Urban Kidney—Revitalizing the Forgotten Bottom. The team developed a comprehensive plan for restoring a long-abused wetland as the centerpiece of a new neighborhood built on an abandoned industrial brownfield.

Find out more at riba-usa.org/Competitions/index.htm. 

© 2007 Jennifer Roberts. Originally published in Good Green News.