Construction Industry: It Is Time to Clean Up Your Act

I recently moved to a building being remodeled in Glendale, California. Soon I realized that the materials used in the remodeling are toxic. I met a man that was in charge of applying one of these materials -- a spray used to renew the kitchen and bathroom counters.

He had been working for many hours in a cloud of gas with the most obnoxious smell I have ever experienced. His pupils were completely dilated and his eyes red. He was obviously in a trance under the influence of such chemicals, and now he was going to drive home!

He told me had been working for eight years in that job, and I could see the obvious damage: he had almost no teeth, and who knows how much brain he had left. Despite the fact that he uses a mask for handling toxic products, he told me he can't avoid exposure, and I have seen other workers immersed in those clouds without any protection.

This is the damage to the workers, but, what about the environment? Every apartment here has been remodeled using obviously toxic materials, and each apartment has required the release of enormous amounts of toxic gases to the environment.

Today, many of the the present materials used in construction work, whether for remodeling or new housing release enormous amounts of toxic gases.

The gases heavily affect the worker that handles such dangerous materials. Later they affect the family living in that place as the gassing continues for years.

During the installation of such materials and later, massive amounts of toxic gases are released into the atmosphere -- gases that very, very likely have powerful green house effects.

Consider also that every construction material has to be produced in a factory first. I can't even imagine what type of obnoxious gases are released into the environment by such factories.

Consider also that what I have witnessed pertains only one small apartment building. Multiply this by all the remodeling and construction of new housing throughout the State of California, and then throughout the planet. This is the obnoxious environmental impact of the construction industry.

It is demanded here that such abuse to the environment and the human body stops. That the government of California HEAVILY regulates the materials used in construction, so that they do not harm life any longer. Time for the construction industry to clean up its act is loooooooong over due.