Library

Healthy Building Network's report on post-consumer carpet feedstocks calls for eliminating over 40 highly toxic chemicals in carpets that threaten public health and impede recycling. These toxics are known to cause respiratory disease, heart attacks, cancer, and asthma, and impair children's developmental health. The report outlines strategies to protect public health and the environment by improving product transparency, eliminating dangerous chemicals from carpets, and increasing carpet recycling rates. It also reveals surprising efforts in the industry to remove many of these toxic substances from carpet design.

Bedford Green House is a 118-unit, 13-storey affordable housing development in New York City, with sustainable design and resident health at its heart. The development used HomeFree to inform the selection of building materials, considering human health impacts. This included using solid core doors with a NAUF (No Added Urea Formaldehyde) core and hardwood plywood cabinets which use less binder (and therefore less formaldehyde) than particleboard and MDF.

HBN tested 94 commercially available paint products for the presence of harmful per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), called “forever chemicals”. Approximately 50% of ‌paints tested positive for fluorine, a marker of PFAS. Review the details of our findings and the recommended actions you can take.

This study, commissioned by DG Environment for the European Commission and produced by Wood and Ramboll.  The objective was to assess the use of PFASs and fluorine-free alternatives in textiles, upholstry, carpets, leather and apparel, including specific focus on volumes of use, technical function, and emissions.

Non-fluorine alternatives considered were hydrocarbons, silicones, dendrimers, polyurethane, nanomaterials, and alternative technologies.  The study makes recommendations for policy, including a REACH restriction on the placing on the market and use of these products that contain any PFAS, and a listing under the Stockholm Convention.  It is also recommended in the report that a restriction could be combined with voluntary industry measures and provisions in public procurement to encourage substitution of PFAS before mandatory legislation is introduced.

Phthalates are mainly used as plasticisers in plastics and can be found in everything from wall coverings and furniture to electronic devices and toys. Phthalates make up two-thirds of the plasticisers market but are proven to be hazardous for human health. This report gives an overview of what phthalates are, their use, and current legislation. It includes a three-step guide to substituting phthalates and analyses the alternatives. 

This report summarises the workstream of the International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) into the use of plastics in the built environment and the impacts on human health.

This report from the Healthy Building Network looks at the environmental health impacts of chlorine, a key ingredient in the PVC supply chain. The report lists the 86 largest chlor-alkali plants and 56 largest PVC plants in the Western Hemisphere, Africa, and Europe. It analyzes chlorine markets with an emphasis on the PVC supply chain, chlorine production technologies, and pollution associated with the production of chlorine and chlorine-based products.

CHARM virtually plastic free homes is an affordable housing development of 12 homes, built using plastic-free materials to reduce environmental and health impacts. The homes are constructed from timber panels and make extensive use of alternative and recycled products, such as aluminium window frames and mineral insulation.