How Steel Buildings Reduce Indoor Pollution
Metal buildings provide significant advantage for chemically sensitive people. They will literally breathe easier in a pre-engineered steel building.
Why? Metal buildings improve indoor air quality.
How? Several benefits of prefabricated steel buildings work keep the air clear. Read on to learn how metal buildings reduce indoor air pollution.
Steel is Inorganic
Like any other plant, wood can cause allergies. Wood dust itself can be aggravating to many people, causing breathing problems, eye irritation, and skin rashes.
During the aging of an organic building material, gasses release into the atmosphere in a process called outgassing. Many modern building products outgas volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) into the home or building.
Mass-produced wood products like plywood, oriented strand board (OSB), gypsum wallboard, and other organic construction materials are manufactured with formaldehyde-based glues. These products emit VOCs.
Softwood lumber naturally produces small amounts of formaldehyde. However, manufactured wood products produce than ten times as much formaldehyde pollutants of softwood lumber.
Products made with urea-formaldehyde (UF) glue— a cheaper glue used in some wall paneling, flooring products, and cabinets— discharge 100 times more pollutants than formaldehyde glued products.
Some evidence links UF resins to actually creating hypersensitivity in healthy people!
Other materials in the building absorb the VOCs, later dispersing them again into the atmosphere, in a perpetual cycle. Studies have shown these products discharge VOCs for many years, continually polluting indoor air.
Breathing in these gasses— especially in a new structure— easily inflicts sinus and lung irritations in otherwise healthy individuals. For chemically sensitive people, children and the elderly, outgassing hazards can be devastating.
Almost 25 million Americans suffer with asthma— over 8% of the population. VOCs aggravate existing respiratory conditions like asthma and allergies.
Breathe Easier in a RHINO Metal Building
Steel is inorganic. Metal framing does not outgas. Steel creates zero VOCs.
Steel buildings also do not require plywood decking or OSB sheathing like wood framing, further reducing indoor air pollutants.
RHINO’s strong, durable, economical metal buildings do not contaminate indoor air quality. Isn’t that alone a strong enough reason to choose steel buildings?
Call a RHINO steel building specialist today for a quote on your next commercial, industrial, or residential building project. Our number is 940.383.9566.
Related blogs:
- Breathe Easier with Metal Buildings- Part 2 (Mold)
- Breathe Easier with Metal Buildings- Part 3 (Termite treatment)
- Breathe Easier with Metal Buildings- Part 4 (Noise)
- Breathe Easier with Metal Buildings- Part 5 (Trees)