According to the American Lung Association, most people spend 60% to 90% of their time indoors and 50% of all illnesses are either caused by, or aggravated by, polluted indoor air. New research gives strong evidence that the type of flooring selected can make a big difference in our indoor air quality.
Flooring has the potential to be harmful to our air quality in 2 ways: the collection of endotoxins and through toxic chemical emissions. Endotoxins are bacterial chemicals particularly found indoors.
According to Darryl C. Zeldin, M.D., Senior Investigator at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, “the likelihood of having recent asthma symptoms is nearly 3 times greater among individuals with exposure to high levels of endotoxin in their flooring.”
One way to avoid toxic chemicals is to make sure that you choose flooring that doesn’t use formaldehyde glue or binders and that has been off-gassed in the factory (off-gassing is the name of that “new floor smell” and is a chemical by-product of the manufacturing process). Research has also shown that green buildings have employees with lower turnover rates, fewer sick days and higher productivity; children in green schools demonstrate higher test scores, lower absenteeism, and heightened academic enthusiasm among students.
Choose healthy flooring! To learn more about the health benefits of cork oak visit our website at http://us.wicanders.com.
Till next week,
Team Wicanders
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“Something radical must happen to save the lynx or it will be gone within the decade, making it the first feline species extinction since the sabre-tooth tiger in prehistoric times” says Eduardo Gonzales, WWF cork oak campaigner and author of The Algarve Tiger, a book about the Iberian lynx. The decline in the lynx population is due to a number of factors including scarcity of prey and loss of cork oak forests. Contrary to belief, it’s actually the use of cork oak that sustains this beautiful cat’s habitat.
