Start-up Aeroseal has been getting decent media exposure lately with a writeup on Energy.gov and a listing on This Old House‘s Top 100 Best New Home Products of 2011.  The company has an exclusive license to technology originally developed within the Indoor Environment Program at the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  In short, Aeroseal sends a sealing mist through air ducts to eliminate holes and cracks of up to 5/8th of an inch — resulting in improved comfort and energy savings.

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Hello, my name is Lisa.  I am (gulp) a modernist who loves color.  There I said it, the truth is out!  I enjoy the nuances of greens, blues, yellows and my all-time favorite aquamarine.  And not just on a throw pillow, mind you.  I long to see it up on my walls and even (dare I say it!) on the exterior of my house.  Unfortunately for a color-lover like me, I live with a typical modernist devoted to white and grey. But a girl can dream, as I’ve been doing since discovering Unearthed Paints, a gorgeously-hued new line of natural paints and wall coatings.

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A new paint technology from Sherwin-Williams has received an innovation award from the Environmental Protection Agency this week. The company’s Water-Based Acrylic Alkyd Technology, or WBAAT, is being awarded a 2011 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award in the Designing Greener Chemicals category. The paint uses soybean oil and recycled PET plastic bottles to replace oil typically used in alkyd paint and, in doing so, reduces VOCs in the paint by 60%.

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In early June, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies issued a report entitled “Climate Change, the Indoor Environment, and Health” which found that climate change could affect indoor environments as buildings seek to become more energy efficient.  The report was commissioned by the EPA to summarize the effects of climate change on indoor air quality and health.

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Although formaldehyde is now listed as a known carcinogen by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, humans will be exposed to this substance in the environment, at home, and in the workplace.  It’s in soil, food, and water, not to mention one of the primary methods of exposure: indoor and outdoor air.  And besides being a carcinogen, health effects include eye, nose, and throat irritation; wheezing and coughing; fatigue; skin rash; and severe allergic reactions, according to the EPA.

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Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) added eight substances to its Report on Carcinogens.  The 12th Report on Carcinogens now includes a grand total of 240 listings.  HHS added formaldehyde and aristolochic acids as “known human carcinogens” and listed captafol, cobalt-tungsten carbide (in powder or hard metal form), certain inhalable glass wool fibers, o-nitrotoluene, riddelliine, and styrene as substances that are “reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens.”

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