The Wilson family moved into a new home last summer. Within days, they were feeling ill. Their eyes were burning, they had sore throats, and they were chronically tired.
Many chemicals in new homes can cause respiratory and skin irritation. Formaldehyde, a common chemical in new wood products and finishes, is an asthma trigger. New construction materials emit the largest amounts of these chemicals, with emission decreasing over time.
Instead of usual colors that we associate with wine such as white or dark red, our color paradigm might shift to say Gold. With the CADE Winery just about to open, this solar powered and organically farmed winery, hopes to garner LEED Gold status and if so, would be the first Estate Gold LEED certified winery in the Napa Valley.
When visiting a winery, people’s olfactory system normally goes into overdrive but instead of inhaling the aromas of vanilla, rosemary, oak and sage here we took deep breaths of the air. As in indoor air quality. No stuffy AC here as the building relies on natural ventilation. While others admire the wines, we admired the other green aspects. CADE will utilize 100% solar power and organic farming methods which both sound tasty to us.
From top to bottom, we got our buzz from the other building features like the concrete composed that contains a generous amount (30 percent) of fly ash, steel made up of 98 percent recycled material, FSC glass and wood, as well as blue jeans for insulation and its own concrete mass for cooling.
The Green aspects just don’t stop at the building. It’s too bad that we didn’t bike or drive our electric car (we did carpool) because the winery offers a plug-in base for hybrid electric cars; and bicycle racks. Even better, they offer a shower (hopefully with low flow showerhead) so cyclists can clean up before tasting or event.
One the eating side, they will have a full-time chef on site who will focus on organic, sustainable cuisine grown on site. We haven’t had the chance to sample some of the sustainable cuisine but we’ll report back when we do.
We, like many people, wondered about the name. The winery name CADE derives from a Shakespearean term used for an oak cask or barrel, — comprises more than 60 acres, 23 of which were planted as vineyards in 2003. Of the remaining land, 28 acres will be protected in a land trust to ensure that they will always remain open space. Now there should be a big “Cheers” to that fact.
Cleaning products and air fresheners can produce formaldehyde. UC Berkeley researchers found that chemicals in pine oils and citrus oils react with ozone in the air, producing formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is a strong eye, nose, throat, and lung irritant. Formaldehyde is also an asthma trigger and a carcinogen, according to the EPA.
Formaldehyde can cause red watery eyes, sore throats, skin rashes, and sinus infections. Persons with asthma are more likely to have asthma symptoms when exposed to formaldehyde. Health effects appear in many persons at about 0.1 ppm. Formaldehyde concentrations in some homes can exceed 0.3 ppm.
Some granite emits enough radon to increase the radon concentration in a kitchen. The radon in Cathy Woods’ kitchen was three times as high as the radon in her bedroom. That lung cancer risk at that level was nearly as high as smoking 10 cigarettes a day.Not long after Green Options posted my article Granite Counters: Uranium Ore In Disguise?, the Managing Editor received a communication from the publicity firm representing the Marble Institute of America (MIA). That letter stated:
In order to demonstrate why these articles/posts are not only inaccurate but also misleading, I wanted to supply some additional information including results from the most comprehensive scientific study of granite to-date that found not a single stone slab that poses a health risk to consumers.
The Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act of 2009 does not address lung cancer prevention. The bill states that 60% of new lung cancers are in non-smokers, but it makes no mention of radon gas, the leading cause of lung cancer in non-smokers. The bill makes no provision for education about radon or testing of homes to detect elevated radon. There is no assistance for homeowners needing mitigation. There is no incentive for builders to use Radon Resistant New Construction.
Proposed by Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), the bill calls for $75 million in funding for drug research. I met with Senator Feinstein’s Legislative Assistant, Kristen Wikelius, to ask that 10% of the funds go toward lung cancer prevention. I reminded Ms. Wikelius that lung cancer treatment is rarely effective. Lung cancer is nearly always fatal within five years.
Senate bill to reduce lung cancer ignores radon gas. Radon is the #2 cause of lung cancer.Liz Hoffman learned she had lung cancer at 37. She never smoked. She had no family history of cancer. She believes her lung cancer was caused radon gas in her home. Dennie Edwards, an Ohio real estate agent, learned he had 10 picoCuries/liter of radon in his home, 2 ½ times the EPA action level. Two days later, surgeons removed his entire left lung. Dennie passed away last June.
Ms. Hoffman founded Cancer Survivors Against Radon (CanSAR) to “put a face on radon”. She hopes that stories like hers will convince people to test their homes for radon and mitigate if needed.
”HUD requires a termite letter to qualify for a mortgage, yet to my knowledge a termite never killed anybody”, comments Dr. Lane Mathis Price (Decatur General Oncology Center). “Why are they not requiring a radon test?” Dr. Michael Dick (Decatur Adult Medicine) adds, “you’d be kicking yourself if you knew something as simple as a radon detection device would have allowed you to prevent this from occurring.”
A Silicon Valley real estate agent told her clients, “There is no radon in California. You don’t need to worry about it.” The couple purchased a home in Sunnyvale, CA, which has some of the higher radon levels in Santa Clara County. Based on their agent’s advice, they chose not to test for radon.
Another home in Sunnyvale had 29 picoCuries/liter (pCi/L), more than 8 times the EPA action level (4 pCi/L). A home in Los Gatos had 56 pCi/L, which is 14 times the action level.
Based on radon test data, about half of California’s 58 counties are in EPA Radon Zone 2, averaging 2-4 piCi/L of indoor radon. Santa Clara County, where I live, has an average radon concentration of 2.9 pCi/L, and about one in twelve radon tests finds radon above 4 pCi/L. Ventura and Santa Barbara counties are in EPA Radon Zone 1, indicating countywide averages above 4 pCi/L.
A homeowner received a proposal for $1045 to remove asbestos panels. The panels did not contain asbestos.Jim Lee thought he had asbestos panels in his laundry room. When he bought his home last year, the property inspector flagged fibrous panels behind the washer and drier as possible “asbestos containing material”. Jim called three different asbestos remediation companies for estimates.
Jim asked me for advice on selecting the best remediation company. I did some environmental testing when Jim bought the home, and he respected my opinion. I asked to see the lab report on the suspect material.
Jim did not have a lab report. Not one of the remediation companies sent a sample to a laboratory. All THREE inspectors claimed they could identify asbestos just by looking at it. At that point, I knew all three companies were unethical.
Home remodel leads to family’s illness.Sharon and her family felt ill. They were coughing and wheezing. Their eyes were watery and red. They had headaches and rashes on their skin.
Sharon contacted an industrial hygienist about their problems. Just a few questions led to the culprit. Formaldehyde can cause precisely the symptoms Sharon and her family experienced. Formaldehyde is also a carcinogen.
A couple buying their first home spent $660 for mold testing. The roof over the garage had leaked, and there was dark fuzzy growth on a 2-foot by 2-foot area of drywall. Their mold testing and remediation company recommended immediate remediation… At an additional cost of $1500.How much of this cost was needed? None of it. The buyers could have better used the money to buy a bucket and a sponge. They would have had ample funds left to repair their roof.
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