Building biology

Building biology (or Baubiologie as it was coined in Germany) is a pseudoscientific activity that investigates the indoor living environment for a variety of irritants. Practitioners consider the living environment as an organism, and believe its functioning can produce a restful or stressful environment. Two of the major areas focused on by practitioners are indoor air quality (IAQ) and electromagnetic fields (EMFs).

Building biology has a training environment for those interested in their environment, or in serving others after being appropriately informed through the International Institute of Building Biology and Ecology (IBE). While it is not a topic whose depth and breadth you can easily study from a book at your local library, there is some related material on the internet: see External links below.

Indoor air quality: criteria for testing

* Fresh air indoors (or lack thereof)
* Volatile organic compounds
* Dust content and character
* Aeroallergens and bioaerosols (pollen, mold, bacteria, viruses, and fragments thereof)
* Airflow Dynamics (Airflow, Temperature, Relative humidity)

Electromagnetic fields: criteria for testing

* Magnetism (static and alternating)
* Voltage (static and alternating)
* Transient electrical phenomena
* Radio frequency content
* Radiation content
* Light quantity and quality

Effects of poor building

After World War II, new houses were quickly built in Germany to accommodate the growing population. Studies Fact|date=September 2008 of these new houses found a pattern of illnesses not characteristic of the population, but characteristic to the commonalities of the living environments. The new housing, being quickly built, and unable to properly air out ("outgas", or "offgas") provided for an environment where the occupants were the recipients of every volatile organic compound (VOC) emitted from the construction materials. Along with this, other irritations became manifest due to the electrical systemsFact|date=September 2008. The two major irritants set to work simultaneously, and enhanced effects arose.

From these discoveries a study Fact|date=September 2008 began in earnest among a few individuals to catalog and characterize the offending components. What emerged was a "Standard of Baubiologie Method of Testing", with recommended threshold guidelines for sleeping areas (the space where and when one is most susceptible to biological irritation and damage). A small cadre of individuals was formed among whom Dr. Anton Schneider, Wolfgang Maes, and the Institut für Baubiologie und Ökologie Neubeurn (IBN) started a training system to educate those that were willing.

One of the architects, Helmut Ziehe, took the program and its possibilities to the USA. He founded the International Institute of Building Biologie and Ecology (IBE) which presently offers seminars across the USA. The Institute's new Director, Robert Steller, is positioned to improve the process from a strong foundation, and keep the links open to the researchers from Germany that made the initial discoveries.

While building biology has the capability to produce living spaces that are healthy for everyone, it does not have extensive public funding. This has sometimes been linkedFact|date=September 2008 to peoples health being compromised, and could potentially have been prevented had building environment health hazards been identified.

The three most sensitive individuals that reap the greatest benefits are: infants, the elderly, and the injured Fact|date=September 2008. These comprise the remainder of the population, and when one of these becomes environmentally hypersensitive, all social contacts seem to vanish, and those remaining go so far as to suggest that the problem(s) may be psychological.

ee also

*Ergonomics
*Sick building syndrome (SBS)

External links

* [http://www.aces.edu.au Building Biology Courses & Training]
* [http://www.buildingbiology.com.au Building Biology Products]
* [http://www.ecolibria.com.au Building Biology in Australia]
* [http://www.emfrelief.com/emf.htm Environmental electromagnetic fields]
* [http://www.iaqsurveys.com/pdf/Baubiology%20Standard%202003.pdf Standard of Baubiologie Methods of Testing]
* [http://www.ekobuildingbiology.com.au Building Biology services in Australia]
* [http:buildingecology.com Building Ecology web site]

German pages

* [http://www.maes.de Wolfgang Maes]
* [http://www.maes.de/SBM.pdf Standard of Baubiologie Methods of Testing]
* [http://www.maes.de/RICHTWER.pdf Limits of the SBM]
* [http://www.baubiologie-ibn.de Institut für Baubiologie und Ökologie Neubeurn (IBN)] For English pages, click on upper left under "Über das Institut"
* [http://www.baubiologie-regional.de Baubiologie Regional - Gesundes Bauen und Wohnen]

panish pages

* [http://www.bioeticaunbosque.edu.co/Articulos/Articulos_Compl/Bioconstruccion.pdf Hacia la Bioconstruccion] [http://www.bioeticaunbosque.edu.co]

References