By Alanna Moore, July 2010.

Are we on a technological trip to hell? (No cats were injured in CI's use of this photograph)

In 1989 I studied a course on Building Biology that had been translated from the German. It warned of the hazards of modern building practices and materials in relation to human health, comfort and wellbeing, as well as any deleterious planetary effects. Penned by architects and health and building professionals in Germany, its dictum is that our homes should be healthy spaces where we can relax and rejuvenate. Unlike homes with Sick Building Syndrome, our homes should protect us and foster our wellbeing.

Twenty-one years later and I lament that building biology has not captured people’s attention as much as other important environmental issues. We do spend a great deal of time indoors, after all. Yet what has become paramount in the current ethos is the green spin of energy efficient building that is totally divorced from our own biological needs.

These days people don’t question life much any more. They just robotically accept the status quo and the spin that goes with it. In terms of energy efficiency and the power down scenario of Peak Oil, this seems also very much the case. But we ignore the tenets of good Building Biology at our own peril! The concept of sustainability should include humans in there too!

Technocratic spin doctors chant mantras of their ‘adhering to the Australian standards’. Meanwhile, in other countries such as Russia, standards for exposure to electro-magnetic radiation and other environmental hazards can be way more stringent. We really need to take the more precautionary approach. There can be energy efficiency that doesn’t compromise our health.

So here is my checklist of potential hazards for the home and home planet.

1. Compact Fluoro Lightbulbs. They have a ghastly dull light, they flicker – affecting our brainwaves, and they contain mercury! For good energy efficiency, the best alternative is to replace all your bulbs with low radiation LED bulbs. (And don’t send those compact fluoros to landfill! Get them properly recycled.)
2. The Air Tight House. Trying to keep any fresh air out and all the heat inside, it makes for a good mausoleum. This might save on the heating bill and greenhouse gases, but if the building can’t breathe and outgas naturally how are we to breathe? Our homes need to act as a ‘third skin’ for us. This is the most well known tenet of good Building Biology. As an alternative – put on a beautiful Aussie wool jumper and long johns instead!
3. Fibreglass Insulation Batts. Fine particles can end up in the lungs. This could well become the asbestos of the future. Plenty of alternatives around.
4. The ‘Smart Meter’. Never was there such a misnomer! Said to be an adjunct to ‘managing’ electricity demand, it doesn’t actually encourage a frugal use of electricity. That requires education and a change in the mainstream ethos that is anti-consumerist – hardly something on any government’s agenda. What it does do is irradiate us with more electro-smog. To quote the ‘EMR & Health’ (Jan-March ’10, vol 6 no 1, page 3): ”The smart meters relay information about electricity consumption through radiofrequency signals similar to the radiation emitted by mobile phones. This radiation will travel through the power lines, through household wiring on top of the 50 Hz signal that is already in place. Information recorded by the meters is transmitted four times a day through power lines to an access point, usually on a light pole, which acts like a mini base station in a mobile phone network. One access point usually serves homes within a wide radius … Because it falls under the category of ‘low impact facilities’ it is legally immune from council control.”
   But ‘low impact’ doesn’t necessarily mean low levels of health effects. The low level of power they use could be pathogenic over a lengthy exposure.
   “Low power signals may even be more biologically active because the body is accustomed to low-power signal and so they may slip through its defence system,” says ‘EMR & Health’. They call it ‘dirty electricity’, when the normal household power supply is contaminated with radio frequencies. Do we really want to live with it, like guinea pigs?
5. Wind Farms.  They are not reliable enough to replace coal powered stations. And that’s just as well. If you find yourself living within a kilometre or two from one of these, and especially if you are downwind from them, you will be a candidate for Wind Farm Syndrome – headaches, insomnia, irritation … Niggling symptoms that don’t quite qualify as ‘real’ health impacts, so you might also get accused of hypochondria! Certainly any grazing animals living beneath the turbines will suffer most – milk drying up and dying quickly etc.
   “Massive wind technology produces a relentless fusillade of pulsating sound, mechanical in pattern, audible to all and intolerable to many, particularly those sensitive to infrasound vibrations.”—Jonathan Boone, Ph.D. Maryland, USA. Not only is the noise and altered atmospherics a health hazard, sometimes the very ground in the vicinity is found to be electrically live! (This is due to stray voltage from the high number of underground linkages between the turbines.) See the articles at my website, such as the one that starts off: “One dairy farmer lost 600 cows over some years as stray voltage reduced his cows’ immune system. He had so much stray voltage that when he dug copper wire into his soil it lit up an electric light bulb…” Read here. http://www.geomantica.com/geom28.htm#7 and also http://www.geomantica.com/geom45.htm#3 Also see an American site: www.windturbinesyndrome.com
6. Concrete floors for heat banking in solar-passive house design. In this regard, they are an over-kill. Concrete homes are damp for years and have terrible ‘feng shui’. You can feel drained of energy if spending time on a concrete floor. The metal mesh in them can be a conduit for stray electricity and also any geopathic stress* too, if that is present, so earthing needs to be very good. Concrete has no breathing ability at all. The production of concrete (and also lime) is very high in energy and resource use. In fact it’s probably the most un-eco-friendly building product around. But there are alternatives!

There are many more examples, but these are some of the worst examples in Victoria currently (the Smart Meter is being introduced first to this state), as well as in many other regions worldwide.

As a sensible society, we don’t have to take the Techno Trip to Hell. How to go forward?  Backwards might well be a good start. Living in an over-developed country means we need to learn from the ancient wisdom inherent in vernacular, natural buildings and the ecological traditions of our ancestors and less-environmentally-impacting neighbours today.

For a more natural and healthy built environment check out Peter Cowman’s website at www.livingarchitecturecentre.com

Natural building courses conducted by Peter will be offered this coming spring and summer near Castlemaine. Also training in Building Biology and Geobiology, as taught by the author, Alanna Moore, will be offered. To be informed, email sheltermaker@gmail.com

• Geopathic stress can be a problem of the geobiology of a place and it needs to be checked to ensure you are living in a healthy home. The author is a professional consultant in geobiology and geomancy. Email: alannapmoore@gmail.com