Tools & Guides

Material Health Research

Want to learn more about the impacts of building materials on health?  These resources provide information on the chemicals that are most toxic, common sources where they're found, pathways of exposure, ensuing health hazards, and the populations that are most vulnerable.

The Big Picture of Material Health

5 tools & guides

Summary-level information on the major issues with toxic chemicals in building materials and how they can affect human health.

Better Building Materials: Understanding Human Health and Environmental Attributes

U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)

This guide defines the core information that building project teams need to know to make the consideration of human health and environmental issues a systematic part of building materials specification, purchasing, and use. 

Healthy Building Network: Research & Reports

Healthy Building Network (HBN)

The Healthy Building Network was founded in 2000 to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals in building products as a means of improving human health and the environment. 

​What is the scientific evidence for health problems associated with the indoor environment?​

Office of the Surgeon General (US)

Report of the Surgeon General's Workshop on Healthy Indoor Environment: January 12–13, 2005, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.

Toxic Chemicals in Building Materials: An Overview for Health Care Organizations

Healthy Building Network (HBN)

This paper considers the impact of chemicals emitted from building materials and provides more information about the reasons for avoiding the use of building materials that have an impact on human health.
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Healthier Materials & Sustainable Buildings Certificate Program

Healthy Materials Lab, Parsons School of Design

Parsons’ Healthy Materials Lab has developed a new “certificate program” to provide designers the information they need to design more healthful interiors.  Four self-paced online courses provide an introduction to key topics in the field, the final two of which are geared to practitioners in the built environment.

Chemicals of Concern

13 tools & guides

Six Classes: A Webinar Series on Chemicals of Concern

Green Science Policy Institute (GSPI)

A series of webinars about six families or “classes” of chemicals which contain many of the harmful substances found in everyday products. Instead of worrying about tens of thousands of untested chemicals, distinguished scientists describe the "six classes" which contain many of the bad actor chemicals in consumer products.

Red List Chemical Guide

International Living Future Institute (ILFI)

The Red List represents the “worst in class” materials, chemicals, and elements known to pose serious risks to human health and the greater ecosystem. The Living Building Challenge believes these materials should be phased out of production due to health and toxicity concerns

Full Disclosure Required: A Strategy to Prevent Asthma Through Building Product Selection

Healthy Building Network (HBN)

Identifies commonly used interior building materials that are likely to contain chemicals that cause the onset of asthma. Examines emerging evidence of how early childhood exposures to these chemicals are of particular concern (December 2013).
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Antimicrobials in Hospital Furnishings

Health Care Without Harm

This report explores the benefits, risks, tradeoffs, and cost implications of adding antimicrobials to hospital furnishings.
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Trade Secrets

Moyers & Company

A two-hour special report on how chemical companies have collaborated to keep from American workers and the American public the full truth about the impact of chemicals on health and safety.

Blue Vinyl

Blue Vinyl is a documentary profiling the prevalence of vinyl products in society at the turn of the century, and the profound dangers that polyvinyl chloride (PVC) present to those that work in and live near manufacturing facilities of them.

Toxic Hot Seat

James Redford and Kirby Walker

Toxic Hot Seat tells the story of activists, journalists and citizen groups who are bringing an end to the era of manipulation and misinformation about hidden toxic chemicals. The film shows the struggle to remove toxic flame retardant chemicals from our couches, environment and bodies. These chemicals are linked to lower IQ in children, thyroid disease, infertility, cancer and other rising rates of health problems. They are found in every living being on earth.

Bisphenol A in Building Materials: High Performance Paint Coatings

Healthy Building Network (HBN)

While manufacturers claim that the BPA in epoxy resins is consumed entirely in the production process and does not show up in the final products, scientists investigating the metabolic breakdown of epoxy resins during occupational exposure have found that epoxy resin products can be metabolized in the human body back into BPA and may impact the endocrine and reproductive system of those exposed (July 2009).
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PolyVinyl Chloride (PVC) Publications

Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ)

Pharos: Chemical and Material Library

Healthy Building Network (HBN)

An online catalog of chemicals, polymers, metals, and other substances. It identifies key health and environmental information using authoritative scientific lists for specific human and environmental health hazards, restricted substance lists, and GreenScreen List Translator scores.

A Guide to The Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS)

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)

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List of Undesirable Substances 2009

Danish Ministry of the Environment, Environmental Protection Agency

The Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Antimicrobials

Perkins+Will, Healthy Building Network (HBN)

A new white paper by Perkins+Will and the Healthy Building Network explains why antimicrobial products may be causing people and places more harm than good, with the top ten reasons summarized here.
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Vulnerable Populations

3 tools & guides

Social Determinants of Health

Nearly everyone is impacted by the social determinants of health in one way or another.  Healthy People 2020 organizes the social determinants of health around five key domains: (1) Economic Stability, (2) Education, (3) Health and Health Care, (4) Neighborhood and Built Environment, and (5) Social and Community Context.

Who’s in Danger? Race, Poverty, and Chemical Disasters

Environmental Justice and Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform

This report presents new research showing that residents of chemical facility "vulnerability zones" are disproportionately African American or Latino, have higher rates of poverty than the U.S. as a whole, and have lower housing values, incomes, and education levels than the national average (May 2014).

Pediatric Environment Health Toolkit

The Toolkit is an easy-to-use reference guide for health providers on preventing exposures to toxic chemicals and other substances that affect infant and child health. Our new mobile device ready online version of the PEHT includes links to many related online resources.
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