One special legislative commission in Massachusetts found that 50 percent of all illness can be attributed to indoor pollution. The U.S. Senate has just passed a bill to expand research on indoor air pollution and encourage the spread of information on how architects, building managers and others should deal with it. People want to think of their house as a safe haven, as their castle. The health effects of indoor pollutants like radon, lead paint, asbestos, and tobacco smoke have been well-publicized for years. But people are just now recognizing that indoor air pollution goes well beyond these culprits.
Modern manufacturing uses chemicals like never before.
Solid lumbers is being replaced with composites like plywood, particle board, flakeboard and fiberboard. All are held together by glues containing formaldehyde and other compounds. Kitchen cabinets, carpets and paints also release toxins. Kitchen ranges, furnaces and water heaters that use natural gas, wood stoves, kerosene and oil heaters all release combustion gases and particulate matter in the home. At worst, they cause death.