Building Biologists: They can tell you exactly (almost) how healthy your home is!

 By Kenton Shepard

Building biology is the study of how buildings impact life. It involves disciplines from a number of areas such as building science, which studies how building react to changes in moisture and temperature levels, Indoor Air Quality, sound building design and construction principles, solar heating and cooling principles, the study of man-made electromagnetic fields and the use of healthy and sustainable matrials in the home. These studies are pursued by following 25 basic principals.

Relatively unknown until rising energy prices began to drive interest in Green Building, building biology is gaining in credibility. The International Institute for Bau-biologie^TM and Ecology, Inc. (IBE), established in Clearwater, Florida in 1987, is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to bringing together the technical expertise, biological understanding and ecological sensitivity to create healthy homes and workplaces.

As a home inspector I find a wide type and number of unhealthy conditions in the homes I inspect. That's why I carry a full-face respirator for crawlspaces and attics. Many of the problems I find may seem insignificant alone, but when enough insignificant concerns are combined, the sum is something to worry about.

There are also a number of concerns which to many people are not real concerns... such as low-level, long term chemical exposure or exposure to environmental hazards with which most people are not familiar... such as histioplasmosis, hantavirus and raccoon roundworm encephilits or high levels of mold spores in indoor air cause by a moisture problem. These are real concerns which have appeared again and again in my healthy home research.

It's an interesting field, still somewhat in it's infancy, but it has a place in a world with an ever-increasing number on people and homes. If you or someone you know has been having reocurring health problems and are having a difficult time nailiing down the cause, you might try calling a bulding biologist in your area.