Journal of Indoor Environmental Quality

The story behind energy, entropy, efficiency, exergy and efficacy

We just released our long awaited simplified summary of energy, entropy, efficiency, exergy and efficacy based on our brand new presentation on sustainability and early feedback from industry leaders has been great. It’s all consolidated into a single web page – written of course in basic easy to understand language and linked back to numerous pages within the www.healthyheating.com website.

If you missed the HRAI of Canada’s annual general meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta, saw the sustainability slides posted earlier but wanted the descriptive language – well now you have it.

Also be sure to check out our updated Indoor Air Quality presentation, Inspecting Hydronic Systems and Skill Sets slides from the Canadian Hydronic Council meeting held in the spring.

Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease

Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease An Update to the Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

Abstract Excerpt: In 2004, the first American Heart Association scientific statement on "Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease" concluded that exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution contributes to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. In the interim, numerous studies have expanded our understanding of this association and further elucidated the physiological and molecular mechanisms involved.

The main objective of this updated American Heart Association scientific statement is to provide a comprehensive review of the new evidence linking PM exposure with cardiovascular disease, with a specific focus on highlighting the clinical implications for researchers and healthcare providers.

RBc: “…exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution contributes to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.” Once again environments can be hurtful or healing – you have little control over the outdoor conditions but you do have a choice over your indoor environment.

See our previous comments on homes as miniature health care facilities and the need to reposition elements of architecture such as interior design and HVAC as part of the healthcare industry and removed out from under the control of the construction industry.

Learn more about: Particulate Matter, Allergens , Sneezing 

Medical Doctors and Hydronic Radiant Heating Systems.

In 2002 William J, Rea, M.D. published his, “Optimum Environments for Optimum Health & Creativity”, a book we recently featured and now sits on my shelf along with numerous building science and engineering manuals collected over the years. I’ve given the good doctor space because he gave space in his book on something dear to me – that being the role that HVAC systems play in indoor environmental quality and specifically his recommendations for hydronic radiant heating as the best choice for conditioning people and places.

Dr. Rea is a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon with a strong passion for the environmental aspects of health and disease and Founder of the Environmental Health Center (EHC-D) and he’s not the lone physician when it comes to opining on heating systems. There are numerous professionals in the heath or building sciences that “get” the link between bodies and buildings and their work can be seen in such projects as CHMC’s Healthy House Toronto project or Seattle-Kings County Breathe Easy Homes - both are considered Gold Standards in healthy homes and both use hydronic radiant based HVAC systems.

I find it interesting how healthcare as possibly one of the greatest public relation machines on earth is overlooked by specific sectors within the HVAC industry when medical doctors such as W.J. Rea, S.D. Lockey lll, or A.C. Engler acknowledge radiant heating in their respective practices.

Another physician specializing in respiratory issues is Dr. P. Field who has served as a consultant to Asthma NSW and recognizes that, "radiant heating such as in-ceiling, in-floor or panel wall heaters are preferred as they are less likely to trigger asthma symptoms." This is echoed in a physician reviewed recommendation from The Children's Hospital at the Anschutz Medical Campus in their ‘Creating an Asthma-Safe Home’ they suggest when, “purchasing a home, consider buying one with baseboard or radiant heating.”

One of the best summaries I’ve found on low temperature hydronic radiant heating and indoor environments comes from, “The Health, Safety and Comfort Advantages of Low Temperature Heating Systems - A Literature Review” published from the Healthy Buildings Conference in August 2000. In a nutshell the report supports the sentiment found amongst allergists and other medical doctors.

Although I would strongly caution anyone making the leap that hydronic radiant heating improves people’s health it is safe to say that indoor environments using radiant based HVAC systems are recognized by some physicians as significant contributors to a healthier home. This has a strong appeal to two powerful decision makers - that being older adults and mothers.

My council to the various hydronic industry groups is this:

1. Recognize that marketing and public relations efforts directed on using the features and benefits of efficiency and comfort are ultimately trumped by health concerns...and as continually demonstrated by Readers Digest annual survey, consumers ultimately have far more confidence in the words of the healthcare worker than words from the trades person or home builder.
2. Find a way to work with the healthcare industry to communicate to consumers that radiant based HVAC systems do contribute to healthier homes.

Study our slides on The Human Factors in HVAC and understand why we feel strongly that elements of architecture such as building enclosures, interior design and HVAC need to be removed out from under the world of construction and be repositioned within the healthcare industry.

Learn more about the complete definition of Radiant Based HVAC

Sources:

1. http://www.ehcd.com/books/home_building_designing.html
2. http://www.asthmansw.org.au/assets/146/File/AsthmaMatters_Winter01_LRes.pdf
3. http://www.rockymountainchildrens.org/wellness/info/parents/39154.aspx
4. http://www.readersdigest.ca/specialfeatures/trustsurvey/cms/xcms/top-jobs--the-professions-we-trust-most_3733_a.html

Optimum Environments for Optimum Health and Creativity

It’s not every day you get to read a book on building construction by a medical doctor so when, “Optimum Environments for Optimum Health and Creativity” by William J. Rea, M.D. came across our radar screen we had to dig into it.

Dr. W.J. Rea, is a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon with a strong passion for the environmental aspects of health and disease and Founder of the Environmental Health Center (EHC-D) with clinics in Dallas and Chicago. His book first published in 2002 is well researched and illustrated with practical information for anyone designing or managing a home or office.

I give it two thumbs up for content and recommend it to all.

The only negative comment I have is actually for all publishers – hard copy books are expensive to import...make your materials available in a .pdf format - this saves on postage and duty charges which unnecessarily triples the cost of a book when importing it into Canada. In this case the book was $20 but it cost me an additional $40 for bringing it in!

Message to authors - it’s not the price of the book – I and many others would pay more for educational materials if we didn't have to pay for outrageous postage and duty charges.

Here’s a shortlist of resources to environmental health where board certified medical doctors influence the content:

The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM)
Visual Contrast Sensitivity Test Center
National Institutes of Health • U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
National Center for Environmental Health 
James Craner, MD, MPH, Occupational & Environmental Medicine Internal Medicine
International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
Note: Beginning in 2011, the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health is expanding its scope to include consumer health, a rubric we define to include the aspects of human disease and injury that are determined or influenced by exposure to consumer goods and their components, including pharmaceuticals, food additives, and other purchased products.)
Canadian Society for Environmental Medicine
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)  
World Health Organization
Where Are You on the Continuum of Environmental Health, Lisa Nagy, MD
The Human Ecology Foundation of Canada 

See also:

Current State of the Science: Health Effects and Indoor Environmental Quality - includes links to numerous other resources.

What are you doing to redefine our future?

What are you doing to redefine our future?

The US Green Building Council says “Generation Green is not an age group. It’s not about politics or personality, demographics or geography. It’s all of us. You are Generation Green” and they are giving everyone a chance to tell the world what you are doing to redefine our future.

So here it is - straight from The U.S. Green Building Council's president, CEO and founding chairman, Rick Fedrizzi…

Send us your videos! What are you doing to redefine our future? We’re not looking for expensive, well-produced videos. Your ideas can be simple or profound, general or specific. Just tell us, in 30 seconds or less, how you are building a future of economic, environmental and social prosperity.

You are Generation Green, and your ideas will inspire the world to act today. And they may be featured at Greenbuild 2010 in Chicago! … No action is too small, no goal too idealistic, and no person too young or too old or too powerless to make a difference. We want to hear from everyone – you, your kids, your grandparents. Your colleagues and your classrooms; your mayors, governors and Congress members; your PTA board and your USGBC Students group.

Submitting your video is easy. Just click "How to Upload a Video" at the top of USGBC press release.

RBc: So what have we done? …in the past several years we’ve: replaced our entire lawn with rundle rocks and stone and low maintenance plants of native species to eliminate the need for fertilizers, chemicals and unnecessary water use; we did a major upgrade in our basement and roofing systems with spray foam and cellulose insulation including caulking, sealants and gaskets around openings and outlets; we use night time ventilation and management of blinds to control summer time over heating… I also consolidated my offices a few years ago and now work from home - translation – I rarely drive my 2000 model truck which has only 120,000 km on the odometer - that’s only 74564 miles for our American readers…and I suspect I’ll get another 10 years out of it before it rusts away. What else? Well we installed an HRV and operate it on timers and demand,  we’ve reduced parasitic plug loads by getting rid of clocks we don’t use…placed entertainment and office equipment on power bars that get switched off after use…we’ve even started to store the morning coffee in a thermos rather than let sit idle on the warmer. Small stuff we should have done years ago but it all counts and despite the things we’ve done – we still have lot’s more to do!

So what are you doing? Do tell…the world wants to know.

Government of Canada's Hazardcheck Guide

OTTAWA - The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, announced the launch of a campaign to help make Canadian families more aware of the environmental health risks around them.

The four-year public education campaign is part of the Government of Canada's commitment to environmental health. "Our government is working to help keep Canadian families safer," said Minister Aglukkaq. "As part of this campaign I'm pleased to introduce Hazardcheck, a guide that provides simple advice that parents can take to keep their homes safer and healthier for themselves and their children". Environmental hazards can be present in the air, water, soil or in your home. They can be inhaled or ingested or absorbed through the skin. Children are especially vulnerable to environmental hazards.

Hazardcheck includes specific advice on ways to protect our most vulnerable populations. The Guide builds on Government of Canada efforts to raise awareness of such issues as consumer product safety, so that Canadians can better understand and act to reduce the health risks around them. The Hazardcheck campaign directly supports and builds on the Government of Canada's Chemicals Management Plan and Clean Air Agenda.

For a free copy of Hazardcheck, please visit:
www.HealthyCanadians.gc.ca/Hazardcheck  or call 1-800-O-Canada.

RBc: This is a great consumer piece and a recommended read for those wishing to improve your indoor environments. For those wishing to expand your knowledge you may want to consider enrolling in the HRAI of Canada IAQ Awareness Program offered across the country. Contact HRAI of Canada.

For a background study in IAQ see these links:
http://www.healthyheating.com/Definitions/sneeze.htm
http://www.healthyheating.com/Definitions/pollen.htm
http://www.healthyheating.com/IAQ/IAQ_animation.htm
http://www.healthyheating.com/IAQ/IAQ_animation_lungs.htm
http://www.healthyheating.com/Definitions/Particulate_matter.htm

Canadian Building and Health Sciences Network - Proceedings

Excerpt: "Understanding the effects of the built environment on our health is a complex business. Thorough research addressing questions such as “What is the best way to construct a house to reduce the stressful effects of noise exposure?” or “Which ventilation strategies both conserve energy and reduce exposure to potential allergens?” requires expertise from many scientific disciplines, including acoustics, architecture, biology, chemistry, engineering, epidemiology, geography, mathematics, medicine, physics, psychology, public health, and urban planning – and probably others as well. Although there exist international associations bringing together some of these disciplines, there has been no co-ordinated effort to bring together Canadian scientists to study these questions, across all building types, in the Canadian geographical and cultural context. Similarly, there are few examples of co-ordinated Canadian design guidelines, recommended practices, regulations, standards, or codes that address the full breadth of built environment effects on Canadian’s health and wellbeing.

Faced with requests for guidance on how to design, construct, operate, and maintain healthful indoor environments, the NRC Institute for Research in Construction (NRC-IRC) began in 2005 to develop the Canadian Building and Health Sciences Network (CBHSN). The network is intended to facilitate the development of collaborative teams that will conduct innovative, interdisciplinary research intended to improve the health of Canadians by improving the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the built environment."

RBc: We highly recommend our readers download and read the proceedings.
http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/obj/irc/doc/pubs/nrcc51222/nrcc51222.pdf

Other suggested readings:

Indoor Environmental Ergonomics
http://www.healthyheating.com/Human_Factors/Human_Factors.htm

Healthy Buildings Conference
http://www.healthyheating.com/IEQ_Radiant.htm

Alvar Aalto as a Healthy Building Architect
http://www.healthyheating.com/what_makes_a_good_%20architect.htm

Predicting Residential Exposure to Phthalate Plasticizer Emitted from Vinyl Flooring: Sensitivity, Uncertainty, and Implications for Biomonitoring

Predicting Residential Exposure to Phthalate Plasticizer Emitted from Vinyl Flooring: Sensitivity, Uncertainty, and Implications for Biomonitoring Xu, Y., Cohen Hubal, E.A., Little, J.C.

Excerpt: Because of their substantial and widespread use, phthalates have become ubiquitous environmental contaminants (Koch et al. 2003; Weschler and Nazaroff 2008; Wormuth et al. 2006). More than 3.5 million tons of phtha¬lates are used worldwide each year, primarily as plasticizers in flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC) products (Cadogan and Howick 1996). Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is an important phthalate, with more than two million tons produced globally each year (Lorz et al. 2002). About 90% of phthalates are found in numerous consumer products, including floor and wall coverings, car interior trim, cloth¬ing, gloves, footwear, wire insulation, artificial leather, and toys (Afshari et al. 2004; Bornehag et al. 2005; Müller et al. 2003). DEHP is mainly used in PVC products such as vinyl flooring (VF), where it is typically present at concentrations of about 20–40% (wt/wt) (Clausen et al. 2004; Deisinger et al. 1998). Because phthalate plasticizers are not chemically bound to the product materials, they are emitted slowly into the surrounding environment (Müller et al. 2003; Wormuth et al. 2006) and have become widely recognized as major indoor pollutants.

Source credit: Environmental Health Perspectives

(pronounced THAL-alates)

RBc: other useful readings include: Current State of the Science: Health Effects and Indoor Environmental Quality 

Also available at the above page:

1. Elements That Contribute to Healthy Building Design
2. In Search of a Common European Approach to a Healthy Indoor Environment
3. Childhood Asthma and Environmental Interventions
4. Improving Indoor Environmental Quality for Public Health
5. Bringing Green Homes within Reach: Healthier Housing for More People
6. Associations between ambient, personal, and indoor exposure to fine particulate matter.
7. The Relationship of Housing and Population Health: A 30-Year Retrospective Analysis

Fresh Air in Your Home - What the Government is Doing to Make it Right

Canadian researchers work diligently to close the gap between indoor air quality and tight home construction.

Energy efficiency is becoming a key component of modern-day construction as homeowners are searching for the most tightly-built, energy efficient homes on the market. It’s a huge change from 60 years ago, when home construction was looser, with more opportunity for air and energy to escape. But with these air-tight improvements, comes a hidden catch — one that many homeowners don’t even know about. The tighter a home, the less energy escapes. But tighter construction can affect airflow and indoor air quality as well, and not for the better. Despite the importance of clean air inside the home, Canadian homeowners know very little about indoor air quality, and probably know even less about the role that construction can play in ensuring the quality of the air inside their house. But there could be a reason for that — very little accessible scientific data exists on the subject. That’s something the National Research Council Institute for Research in Construction (NRC-IRC) is currently trying to remedy, with an ongoing study called the Indoor Air Initiative, led by the NRC’s Indoor Environment Program.

Download the full report.

RBc: We had an opportunity to interview the researchers on this project, you can read about it in the Sept/Oct Issue of HPAC Canada.

See also: How your lungs work.

EPA and DOE Join States to Speed Energy Efficiency Progress in the United States

WASHINGTON – As part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to increasing energy efficiency and reducing costs, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced today the creation of the State Energy Efficiency (SEE) Action Network. This network is meant to help states achieve maximum cost effective energy efficiency improvements in homes, offices, buildings and industry by 2020. Strengthening energy efficiency initiatives across the country helps to save money and protect the environment at the same time.

For further information Contact:
Enesta Jones
jones.enesta (at) epa.gov
202-564-7873
DOE PUBLIC AFFAIRS:
202-586-4940
_________

Past deliverables from the network have included, “The Rapid Deployment Energy Efficiency (RDEE) Toolkit” which is designed to help state and local authorities and energy efficiency program administrators plan and implement successful programs as they advance energy efficiency through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

The Toolkit was developed under the guidance of and with input from the Leadership Group of the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency, with support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

RBc: A quote from the tool kit includes something we support, “The measure mix (the technologies that are cost-effective for the program to rebate) of HVAC programs varies largely based on weather and primary fuel (electric or gas). For example, in some areas of the country measures such as ground source heat pumps and hydronic heating systems are cost-effective and have been incorporated into residential HVAC programs.”

We suggest readers learn more about low temperature radiant hydronic heating systems.