[GSBN] earthen floor sealer in Haiti

[Bill Christensen]

On 3/17/11 2:12 PM, Derek Roff wrote:
> Pondering Bruce King's posting, I wonder about the impact on the food 
> supply of using food-grade linseed oil. It's an interesting question, 
> both in this specific case and more generally. I have no idea what 
> foods contain food-grade linseed oil, nor who eats them, and I don't 
> remember seeing it on any ingredients list for foods that I buy. 

In food, they call it "flax oil" or "flax seed oil". It's often found in 
'healthy' chips and such, as well as many other organic or health foods. 
High in essential fatty acids, said to be good for heart health, blah 
blah blah.

> I also wonder whether it is better for the hypothetical hungry person 
> to use a petrochemical on the floor. Leaving aside the fact that I've 
> often seen petrochemicals listed on food labels, I'm thinking that the 
> using petrochemicals that are also used in agricultural production and 
> transportation might have a greater impact on hunger than the use of 
> food-grade oils. I'm glad Bruce is asking the big questions, and I 
> hope someone other than myself can provide some answers. Not that the 
> quantities of anything that we use to seal an earthen floor are likely 
> to be a large proportion of our consumption habits, but I think these 
> questions are worth thinking about.

As a person who is sometimes hungry (that's my stomach growling right 
now) and as someone into natural building, I would prefer to keep the 
petrochemicals out of all of my ingestion - including breathing whatever 
might volatilize off my floor or absorb through my skin. One of the 
goals is to build healthy homes, is it not? If you have a choice between 
a likely toxin and something which is edible, it's probably safer to go 
for the edible stuff.

I would suspect that an edible oil used on an earthen floor *might* 
attract critters for a brief period while it's curing, but once cured it 
would be far less likely to be attractive.

Then again, they've found arsenic-eating bacteria, so it's hard to say 
what will show up if a lot of earthen floors are built with whichever 
sealant. Nature tends to find ways to use anything that's abundant.



-- 
Bill Christensen

<http://SustainableSources.com>