Page 56 - Green Builder July-August 2018 Issue

CREDIT: TERRY BEAUBOIS

SMART CITIES
continued from page 53

electricity and do not have mechanical
air conditioning, heating or mechanical
ventilating of these buildings or homes.
During my preliminary research, I was
reminded about the issue of radon in
homes in the U.S. and began to explore
whether the chemical element could be a
contributing factor in the Dhaka locations.
What I found was remarkable: The World
Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
state that the presence of radon gas in
a home environment may increase the
negative eŽect of other air pollutants, and
increase the incidence of lung disease by a
factor of 10 to 100 times. Both groups have
recently ranked radon as the second-leading
cause of lung cancer globally, after smoking
cigarettes.

A HARD REALITY
Upon returning from Bangladesh, I did
some research into the awareness level
in the U.S. of radon and air quality, and
found that there is still not a high level
of knowledge and understanding about
the issues of air quality in buildings
throughout the residential building
industry. But it appears these issues are as
important throughout the U.S. as they are
in Bangladesh.
Today, the building industry is faced
with the reality that research proves that
air quality is a dire problem. Whether it’s
within a Bangladesh slum or a U.S. suburb,
people are dying due to building air quality
issues. In 2017 in the U.S. alone, 21,000
deaths were attributed to radon exposure.
Long-term exposure to this and other lethal
elements in a building, that are invisible
but can be detected with the right devices,
may shorten a person’s life span by 10 to Watchful eyes. Students in Dhaka, Bangladesh, look on as Stanford researcher Yunjae Hwang sets up
20 years if gone unaddressed. air quality measuring equipment inside their home.
Recently, I met with a NASA astrophysicist who is working on this industry whose entire family had health issues that were traced to
same issue, studying the eŽects of radiation on commercial airline air quality and Sick Building Syndrome. His interests now include
pilots and crews who travel frequently and for long periods of time getting the word out about how to eŽectively address these issues
at high altitude, as well as astronauts on the existing International during the design and construction period. I will report about this
Space Station (ISS). We discussed coordinating our research in the work in a future article. GB
future to fully address radiation exposure on humans, whether in
the ISS or in their homes. So, again, NASA and the space station are Terry Beaubois is an architect in Palo Alto, Calif. He is CEO of the
in the scope of my building industry interests. internet startup BKS (Building Knowledge Systems) LLC, and an
In addition, I have been in touch with a member of the building adjunct lecturer at Stanford University.

54 GREEN BUILDER July/August 2018 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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