Get The Facts - Indoor Air Quality & Toxic Building Materials

Another nasty by-product of using man-made synthetic materials? Because of their low water absorption properties, synthetic materials create static charges and much more easily condense water vapor. As the next section shows, healthy indoor air depends on moisture control and using natural materials of high hygroscopic capacity. Man-made synthetic materials and finishes are neither.

MOISTURE CONTROL IS KEY

Here is one of my most favorite Building Biology graphs, from Dr. Elia Sterling’s book, Criteria for Human Exposure to Humidity in Occupied Buildings :

In such a straight-forward and simplistic way, this graph shows how the 8 factors listed on the left fall and/ or rise as relative humidity changes. Bioaerosols like bacteria, most viruses, and dust mites simply can’t live within the middle range of relative humidity. The optimum zone that minimizes the sum of all