Report: ‘Green’ buildings could harm your health

“America is in the midst of a large experiment in which weatherization efforts, retrofits, and other initiatives that affect air exchange between the indoor and outdoor environments are taking place and new building materials and consumer products are being introduced indoors with relatively little consideration as to how they might affect the health of occupants,” said a statement from John Spengler, the chairman of the committee that wrote the report. “Experience suggests that some of the effects could be negative.”

The report also says climate change may directly affect the quality of indoor air. It calls on environment regulators to coordinate with other groups to ensure that public health concerns are considered when revising and adopting building codes and ventilation standards.

A version of this story was published on The Hill’s Healthwatch blog at 11:41 a.m.