Sunday, January 29, 2006

Points of Contact

Biological Points of Contact--

The points at which foreign bodies or particulates are ingested or somehow enter our body cavity and how such exposure effects us physiologically, physically or neurologically.

The Bends: as nitrogen precipitates from your blood as you ascend towards the surface of water, bubbles will form in your blood stream and travel to your heart and cause death or become trapped in your joints and accelerate arthritis.

Male Subfertility: a male exposed to lead who produces sperm with the incorrect proteins on the head of the sperm or misshaped head which without the aid of Artificial Reproductive Technologies would not penetrate the lining of the egg.

Asbestosis: inhalation of air-borne fibers of asbestos in such concentrations that fibers become trapped against the lining of the lungs, infects the areas, mucus grows to such a large area that the lung stops working.

Mold: inhaling mold spores that become trapped in the sinus cavities and causes an allergy attack.

Remodeling Remodeling Points of Contact--

The points at which people interact with building components that contain or cover potentially hazardous materials.

Have you ever removed a toilet? Have you had opportunity to scrap the old wax-ring from the flange and catch a wiff of the smell from the soil pipe? How about removed a sink-base cabinet in a poorly maintained house? Witnessed the plums of dust generated during removal of carpet originally installed in 1958? Replaced framing rotted by water due to improper window flashing? How about cut high-density particle-board without proper breathing protection?

Done this and more and thought nothing of it? Taken in comparison with the great many issues facing modern-humans, health effects from poor air-quality is not a real barn-burner -- unless you suffer from it.

I assert, as do all other indoor air-quality advocates, that we need to increase awareness to these Points of Contact and improve implementation of procedures to better control exposure to workers and to occupants.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Why care about dust on remodeling projects?

How many ways can this be answered?

Anyone have allergies? Asthmatic? Sensitive to off-gasing of VOC's? Immune to exposure to lead or asbestos? Truly like drywall dust buggers? Wonder why their skin was irritated after building their deck last weekend? Like spending days cleaning dust off of every horizontal surface in their home after their basement was built out?

These are just some of the issues I have seen during my years in remodeling. Since a young boy, I have been exposed to lead, asbestos, mold, vermiculite, arsenic, silica, cement, lime, fiberglass, cellulose, formaldehyde, ammonia, pet dander, human dander and the list goes on and on and on. Recently, I have noticed definite physical symptoms after exposure to contact-adhesive, paint thinner, acetone, new carpet, vinyl-flooring, solid-surface adhesive and many other chemicals used on current day remodeling projects. The number of man-made products combined with the number of naturally occurring substances that are ingested during remodeling is startling.

The reason to care about dust in remodeling is simple: minimize unnecessary discomfort and health hazards to workers and occupants. This should be a no brainer. But, as we go forward designing the dust Control program we will discover there is more to this issue than meets the eye.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Debut

Don't be left in the dust!!!!

Remodeling Dust is a blog devoted to improving the way in which remodelers in the United States address the issues associated with dust and other potentially hazardous particles found on remodeling projects.

Issues include:

Why should customers and contractors care about dust?
Points of Contact
Worker Protection
Customer Protection
Work Practices
Regulatory Compliance
Profitability
Liability Mitigation
Best Practices
Types of Dust
Health Issues Due to Exposure
Clean-Up Procedures

If you are considering a remodeling project or are a professional remodelor this is the blog for you...

We look forward to robust discussion on points of information that are due to follow.

Link to http://qx2.net for information about Dust Control consulting services.