Indoor Air Quality -- Identifying Sources and Making Renovation Choices that Eliminate Contamination
Noreen Adler
Founder and President, Ecobrownstone
Noreen is Founder and President of Ecobrownstone. She has been a resident of brownstone Brooklyn (Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights and Carroll Gardens) for over two decades and has planned, designed and managed a wide range of renovation and real estate development projects in Brooklyn and elsewhere. As a developer she is a member of the NYC Committee evaluating the LEED for Homes Guidelines for application in New York. She also has a personal passion for sculptural relief ceramic tiles and murals which she has designed and fabricated at her studio on the Gowanus Canal.
Breathing fresh, healthy air is a basic human desire, and to achieve this goal our focus often lies with reducing or eliminating sources of outdoor pollution. However, the average person spends 90% of his or her time indoors, and EPA studies have shown that indoor air can be as much as 10-times more polluted than outside air in even the largest industrialized city.
Indoor air pollution is one of the top five environmental health risks, and improving your indoor air quality through the elimination of toxic, off-gassing substances and proper ventilation can have a significant, positive impact on your health.
According to the EPA, while pollutant levels from individual sources may not pose a significant health risk by themselves, the cumulative effects of indoor air contaminants can do so. Indoor air pollution is a significant contributor to asthma, headaches, nausea and dizziness, respiratory allergies, chronic fatigue, and more serious diseases like cancer and kidney and liver damage, and serious injury to children including brain, hearing and nervous system damage, and physical growth, developmental and behavioral problems and learning disabilities. Read on to learn how to identify and eliminate pollutants.
Indoor air pollution is one of the top five environmental health risks, and improving your indoor air quality through the elimination of toxic, off-gassing substances and proper ventilation can have a significant, positive impact on your health.
According to the EPA, while pollutant levels from individual sources may not pose a significant health risk by themselves, the cumulative effects of indoor air contaminants can do so. Indoor air pollution is a significant contributor to asthma, headaches, nausea and dizziness, respiratory allergies, chronic fatigue, and more serious diseases like cancer and kidney and liver damage, and serious injury to children including brain, hearing and nervous system damage, and physical growth, developmental and behavioral problems and learning disabilities. Read on to learn how to identify and eliminate pollutants.
