About a month ago, a new job title was thrust upon me. It happened at a training session with Ellen Tohn. Ellen, who is a nationally recognized expert in healthy housing, informed the room that, like it or not, all of us who work in high performance residential building are also front line public health workers.

This is not simply a clever way of restating the obvious—namely, that pollutants and other health risks abound in our buildings. For when we take seriously our responsibility to provide a healthy home environment for our clients, we are challenged to reexamine many aspects of our practice, from questions we ask at initial sales meetings to post-project monitoring. At least this has been my experience.

A few years ago, I was tasked with developing healthy home guidelines for Byggmeister. We had growing concerns about the health risks associated with indoor air pollution. And while we had a good handle on how to ventilate homes properly, we were realizing that ventilation alone could not ensure good indoor air quality, and that we needed to pay at
least as much attention to source control.

The very first person I contacted for information and advice in developing our guidelines was Ellen. What is the impact of weatherization on radon levels? How does dampness affect the risk of being diagnosed with asthma? How much do kids benefit when we replace windows that have lead paint? Ellen not only helped answer these questions, she also gave very practical advice about when and how to test for indoor pollutants and how to respond when we find them. In short, she has been instrumental in helping Byggmeister align practices with the most up-to-date research and guidance on source
control.

She could help you too, if you attend her and Jonathan Wilson’s session at BE13. Ellen and Jonathan, who are both healthy housing superstars, will be speaking on “Health Opportunities and Pitfalls of Energy Upgrades—What Doesn’t Smell Can Still Hurt Us.” They will be presenting new EPA guidance for protecting occupant health during energy
upgrades as well as data on changes in occupant health after weatherization.

According to the session description “it’s a must know subject for programs and companies seeking to minimize liability issues and improve client health.” As someone who has instituted major practice changes based on the expertise that Ellen and Jonathan will share at this session, I couldn’t agree more.