[GSBN] even more on earthen floors

[Bruce King]

Wow, I should have know y'all might have a lot to say -- and thank you  
again each and all for speaking up!  This is great!

I'm forwarding the note below from a friend here in California,  
Barbara Roemer, who reads but as yet cannot post to GSBN.

Thanks,

Bruce King
bruce at bruce-king.com
(415) 987-7271
Twitter: @brucekinggreen
blog: bruceking.posterous.com
Skype: brucekingokok

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Barbara Roemer <roemiller4 at gmail.com>
> Date: January 5, 2012 1:30:43 PM PST
> To: bruce at ecobuildnetwork.org
> Subject: concrete context
>
> Hi Bruce,
>
> I'm a recent subscriber to the Greenbuilder list, but obviously  
> can't post.   Charles Kenny's article on paving over earthen floors  
> is of great interest to me.  I appreciate your posting it and look  
> forward to others' comments.  I have an earthen floor, so in the  
> particular, I'm concerned about possible compromised air quality.   
> In a broader perspective, we are natural builders and have helped  
> many people in Northern California put in earthen floors, always  
> with attention to the sealing so they can be cleaned, and to the  
> sealing agent so we're not dealing with VOCs/offgassing.  Since all  
> these floors have been well-sealed, I hadn't given any thought to  
> particulates being a problem.
>
> It seems to me that dust is certainly related to improper or no  
> sealing, although that doesn't mean we haven't created other air  
> quality issues.  But I have never seen insects coming up through an  
> earthen floor that's well-saturated with linseed oil or other oil  
> sealers.  Since these floors I'm familiar with in the US have tamped  
> gravel subfloors, it also seems unlikely that hookworms are  
> penetrating both the gravel/fines subfloor and the oiled, tamped  
> clay.  I don't doubt that where hookworm and other parasites are  
> eliminated, quality of life in general improves, and in particular  
> on many of the metrics Kenny cites.  However, probably some of the  
> improvements he mentions are due to perception: that is, where  
> earthen or "dirt" floors are stigmatized and undesirable, seems  
> natural that people would respond positively to the "improvement" of  
> concrete.  If the street is paved, surely it's more passable that a  
> rutted dirt track, but rents are likely to rise both because of the  
> real improvement in the condition of the road as well as because of  
> the perceived improvement of a modern, acceptable material.  (I  
> think of the placebo effect in disease treatment being as high as  
> 30% in some studies.)  Of course, dust pollution in California's  
> Central Valley is a well-known health hazard, and much of it arises  
> from unpaved farm roads as well as from tilling the soil.  It seems  
> to me that the questions raised by the article are interesting, but  
> not necessarily simple to answer.
>
> Another consideration is that of unexpected consequences.  There is  
> some limited research going on in the US regarding the value of  
> hookworms in the treatment of autoimmune diseases.  It's related to  
> the hygiene hypothesis: apparently asthma, allergies, inflammatory  
> bowel disease and other immune diseases are not generally found in  
> people with hookworms and related helminths (Google David Pritchard  
> + Helminths).  NPR ran a RadioLab show on the topic a couple of  
> years ago.  While it's true that hookworms can result in severe  
> anemia, that's not so in well-nourished populations.  Clinical  
> trials on the effect of helminths on autoimmune diseases are just  
> beginning.  Right now, no studies are conclusive, but they are being  
> run by credible institutions, including U.C. San Francisco Medical  
> Center.
>
> I'm not advocating dirt floors, unsealed and potentially full of  
> parasites, but context may be fairly significant before drawing  
> conclusions.  For now, I'm planning another earthen floor, but I'd  
> like to see some testing on hygiene, parasite presence, and VOCs  
> related to indoor air quality on earthen floors as they are  
> currently installed in best practice in eastern and western  
> countries where they are floors of choice rather than those of  
> default.
>
> Barbara Roemer
> Nevada City, CA
>
>
> -- 
> We are silence,
> We are golden,
> We are billion-year-old carbon,
> And we got to get ourselves back to the garden.
>
>                                                    -Joni Mitchell
>
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sustainablesources.com/pipermail/gsbn/attachments/20120106/fc77bde8/attachment.htm>