In recent years, GVHBA has worked closely with Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to gain insight into how the air quality in homes can affect our health and well-being. Today’s new homeowners are reaping the rewards of this collaboration.

Canadians spend more than 90% of their time indoors, much of it at home. Research shows that the quality of indoor air can have significant health effects. The more than 20% of Canadians who suffer from allergies and asthma are especially sensitive to poor indoor air quality.

A home’s air quality is affected by many things:

• Off-gassing from building materials, finishes and furniture
• Dust
• Excessive moisture leading to mold growth
• Improper ventilation
• Incomplete combustion in heating systems and other equipment

Our daily activities have a big impact - moisture from cooking, bathing and laundering; gases from household cleaners and personal products; and so on. The air quality in your home is also affected by cigarette smoke; hair, dander and litter dust from pets; and pollutants from many types of hobbies. Even emissions from equipment in your home office can have an effect.

Today’s new home builders take a systematic approach to clean indoor air. It begins by selecting the right building materials to reduce the amount of pollutants introduced into your home, such as low- or no-emission wood products, glues, grouts, paints and floor finishes. For instance, many new homes use hardwood or tile flooring in living and work areas, which are relatively easy to keep clean of such pollutants as dust and mold and can contribute less off-gassing.

The next step is ventilation. Every home needs a constant flow of fresh clean air from the outside to displace stale indoor air. In today’s well-constructed and well-insulated homes, mechanical ventilation systems, such as a heat recovery ventilator (HRV), are built right into the structure of the house. In addition, all heating and cooling equipment, including fireplaces, can draw combustion air directly from the outside and is vented separately to eliminate the risk of indoor air contamination.

Talk with your builder if anyone in your family has special health concerns (e.g. allergies, asthma). Builders can take advantage of a whole range of special measures to ensure superior air quality, for instance by using wall plaster rather than drywall and milk paints instead of latex.

Whether or not you have special needs, today’s new homes are built to give you the best possible indoor environment. That means clean fresh air, a comfortable moisture level, and no lingering odours. It’s even nice to know that you can safely store belongings in your basement, knowing that they are not going to smell moldy after six months.

Contact your local CMHC office for more information about indoor air quality and the Healthy Housing Program. Visit the CHMC Web site at www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca or call 1-800-668-2642.  CMHC’s publication Building Materials for the Environmentally Hypersensitive outlines many of the measures that can be taken to ensure superior air quality and is available by calling the toll-free number.

Search for a GVHBA member in your area.