Green buildings and health

Details

• Personal Author:
  Allen JG ; Eitland ES ; Flanigan SS ; Laurent JGC ; MacNaughton P ; Spengler JD
• Description:
  Green building design is becoming broadly adopted, with one green building standard reporting over 3.5 billion square feet certified to date. By definition, green buildings focus on minimizing impacts to the environment through reductions in energy usage, water usage, and minimizing environmental disturbances from the building site. Also by definition, but perhaps less widely recognized, green buildings aim to improve human health through design of healthy indoor environments. The benefits related to reduced energy and water consumption are well-documented, but the potential human health benefits of green buildings are only recently being investigated. The objective of our review was to examine the state of evidence on green building design as it specifically relates to indoor environmental quality and human health. Overall, the initial scientific evidence indicates better indoor environmental quality in green buildings versus non-green buildings, with direct benefits to human health for occupants of those buildings. A limitation of much of the research to date is the reliance on indirect, lagging and subjective measures of health. To address this, we propose a framework for identifying direct, objective and leading "Health Performance Indicators" for use in future studies of buildings and health. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution, Indoor Biological Products Chemistry Demography Environment Environmental Exposure Environmental Health Environmental Pollution Filtration Lighting Occupational Health Safety Ventilation

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• Keywords:
  Acoustics Author Keywords: Green Buildings Biological-agents Biological-effects Biological-material Chemical-properties Demographic-characteristics Environmental-factors Environmental-hazards Environmental-health Environmental-protection Exposure-levels Health Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality Indoor Environmental Quality Lighting-systems Physiology Pollutants Pollution Sociological-factors Systematic Review

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• ISSN:
  2196-5412
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  250-258
• Volume:
  2
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20047376
• Citation:
  Curr Environ Health Rep 2015 Sep; 2(3):250-258
• Contact Point Address:
  Joseph G. Allen, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 401 Park Drive, 404-L, Boston, MA 02218, USA
• Email:
  jgallen@hsph.harvard.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard School of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Current Environmental Health Reports
• End Date:
  20280630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:80bbf019e8a01cc07af4d09dc2e554ec546770802b07cbbda50f1ba0768fd2451027470ba313d262171a78031a58d7cd4d2362ae99ee21445a573b2a1b86b979
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/202460/cdc_202460_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 514.16 KB ]