A San Francisco-based company is looking for a marketing niche by supplying information to contractors and owners about building with non-toxic products and health-conscious methods. The firm says its data is compiled from several years of research about the health safety of common construction materials and practices. The company, Saferbuilding.com launched a website earlier this year where it offers how-to guides, a certification program, and environmental disclosure forms. The company aims to advance safer building methods in order to protect the health of workers on jobsites and future inhabitants of structures being built.

Work habits, techniques, can reduce a building's toxicity. (Photo courtesy of Courtesy of SaferBuilding.com )

The certificate program allows owners to document a structure's toxicity status. Owners fill out a questionnaire with details about a structure, and the responses are evaluated by Safer Building's staff. Three levels of certification are given, establishing the amount of toxic material existing within the building, which owners can then use to document levels of toxicity in the building for future tenants or inhabitants. Certification costs $80 per property.

The environmental disclosure forms helps owners disclose to tenants or potential buyers the health quality of a building's environment, including the surrounding neighborhood's toxic waste or emissions history, and if toxic residue is present due to pesticide use, renovations, or other construction activity. The forms are available for $10 each, with discounts for multiple purchases.

Founder Michelle Miller says building materials that are laden with toxic chemicals, and construction methods that often disperse the toxins throughout buildings and jobsites, are "surprisingly common, many times people think that because a product or material is available in a store then it must be safe – that isn't so." She says she began studying the toxicity of common construction materials such as drywall, flooring finishes, paints, and others, after a brush with pesticides a few years ago nearly took her life. "It made me aware of how prevalent toxins are in our environment," she says. The experience spurred Miller to begin researching toxicity in building materials and experimenting with "clean" alternatives, and hiring contractors to test new products and methods for efficacy.

Flooring contractor Gene Brockhoff, owner of Unique Wood Floors, San Francisco, says he helped Miller test floor sealants containing low amounts of volatile organic compounds. "It was surprising to me to learn how many of the products I was using were toxic," Brockhoff says. "I've started using water-based finishes, which contain about 66 parts per millions of VOCs, instead of the oil-based finishes that have about 300 part per million of VOCs." Brockhoff says that while the cleaner finishes are more expensive and require more time to apply, he's made the switch as a matter of conscious. "If I don't do it, who will?" he says.

Miller says high concentration of VOCs in floor finishes, and other materials, can cause a host of health problems for those that work with or live in contact with the product. Contractor Brockhoff says his involvement with SaferBuilding spurred him to change his jobsite behavior, adopting new methods to minimize health hazards for him and his staff, as well as his clients. "Once I learned that wood dust contains carcinogens it caused me to rethink my methods," he says. When sawing or sanding wood, "I used to use a paper mask and I would always get a headache," he explains. "But I started using a face shield respirator and now I don't get headaches anymore." Brockhoff says contractors can cutting wood outside, rather than within a building, eliminates wood dust that can linger within building for years and adversely affect inhabitants' health.