Healthy Habits: How building design plays a role in our risk for heart disease and other illnesses

 

Our homes, offices and other shared spaces that we occupy play a significant role in our health, especially when it comes to heart disease. Factors like indoor air quality and chronic noise are often overlooked, so let’s take a look at how building design can lower our health risks for us and our families. 

Environmental specialist Douglas Mulhall and author of The Calcium Bomb, has uncovered that there is much more than what meets the eye when it comes to the causes of heart disease and other sicknesses. Our environment plays a significant role which is often overlooked when looking at the factors. 

How building design impacts us and what to reduce to help our risk of heart disease and improve overall health. 

Reduction #1: Filtering indoor air and water
You are what you breathe! Most of us spend more than 85% of our lives indoors, so that’s the best place to battle against heart disease. The first and easiest way to do this is eliminate the harmful microparticles containing pollutants that trigger cardiovascular disease. The USEPA has guidelines on this with the right air and water filtration for the home or office. On the flip side, if you don’t do this, indoor air quality can be up to eight times worse than outdoors due to concentration of particulates and gasses. 

Reduction #2: Eliminating chronic noise
Sound off about bad sounds! According to a World Health Organization study, chronic noise is the second leading cause of premature death. Buildings can shield occupants from chronic outdoor noise like traffic. In schools, inexpensive proper placement of acoustic panels and sound deadening underlay on floors can cut noise while improving teaching and learning by reducing echo. If you’re a parent or a tenant in a building, ask the building managers to look into it.

Reduction #3: Use safe materials
It’s a material matter! Many toxins that can trigger heart disease come from indoor surfaces like furniture and floor and wall coverings as they wear off or release harmful chemicals. New standards like WELL show how to solve this problem by selecting safer materials when you’re doing a renovation. Likewise, make sure your ventilation system motors don’t deliver toxic off-gassing into the indoor environment.

Reduction #4: Safe cleaners
Everyone can do this. A major cause of poor indoor air quality is toxic cleaning ingredients. A city environmental engineer once told me ‘there’s no point investing in a building designed for healthy air if you end up with unhealthy maintenance. This has only gotten worse due to the rush to use disinfectants during the COVID pandemic. There are lots of healthy cleaning products around and lots of sources to inform you about them.