Can a Building Manager Save Your Life?
Edmund is perhaps the last person that you may think of as someone who will change your life, but think again! The silent enemy is the toxic conditions in a vast array of commercial buildings. Not just old building, which are serious threats, but the newer buildings that were not nearly are Green or safe as we thought. In fact, even the Green buildings may save energy but quickly turn toxic from building materials, cleaning products, and the constant influx of polluting pesticides, cleaning products, and internal operations.
Some cleaning products and processes may cause subtle symptoms like: headaches, tiredness, lethargy, and nausea. But, over the process of years, the toxic buildings (bioload or bioaccumulation) build in the contained system of a commercial building. Eventually, the constant influences of everyday pollution create something called SDS or “Sick Building Syndrome”.
The bioload is constantly being fueled by ordinary pollution, pesticides, fragrances, cleaning products, sanitizers, carbon dust from copiers, untreated mold, and bacteria.
The impact is mild at first unless you are one of the more sensitive types. But, even people in good health are under attack. Toxins, pollutants, and chemical fumes wear down the immune system. After ten or twenty years, an immune system weakened by age and constant exposure to toxins and pollutants gives way to a common disease, but you won’t know why this happened after so many years.
You’ll call your cancer, diabetes, chronic lung condition, onset of severe allergies and sensitivities … just “Bad luck”. In fact, we all know the value of a healthy diet, watching our weight, drinking clean water, and exercise that extends our lives. The quality of the air is a huge factor since we all consume much more air every day than the food we eat or the water that we drink.
The Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) of a building is absolutely the proximate cause of many diseases … if only we knew it at the time. Building and facility managers need to assure the health of all workers in commericial buildings by faithfully following the best Green cleaning practices.
