Hawaii Green Building Law

Next month I will be a presenter at the 11th Biennial Governors Pacific-Rim
Safety and Health Conference 2010. In preparing for the presentation I have been focusing on safety issues related to green development.

Just because a project is “green” does not necessarily mean that it is safe, particularly for the workers constructing the building. For instance, low VOC paints often include potentially toxic materials, such as silica, which could be harmful to the painter.

In addition, fly ash (a waste product of coal-fired power plants) is commonly used as a partial replacement to portland cement and is known to increase concrete’s constructibility, durability and sustainability. Use of fly ash contributes to achieving LEED credits for using recycled materials in construction. In addition to diverting material from landfills, proponents of fly ash tout that it conserves energy by reducing the need for standard materials such as cement, crushed stone, and lime, all of which require energy to be produced.

Fly ash, however, is being described as the “new asbestos” and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering reclassifying fly ash as a hazardous waste under Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The action is a response to the Dec. 22, 2008, collapse of an earthen retaining wall of a containment structure at a Tennessee coal plant. The failure sent 5.4 million cu yd of toxic sludge, containing fly ash and water, flowing over 300 acres. The spill is considered the worst breech of its kind in the U.S.

Critics of fly ash believe that some buildings have an increase in toxic indoor air contamination due to the use of fly ash that has been used as an additive in concrete. Critics cite to a building in Hong Kong where:

researchers suspect that the combination of fly ash and granite aggregation in concrete causes the building to be “hot” with the radioactive gas radon when the air-conditioning systems are shut down at night and on weekends. As a result, night and weekend workers may be exposed to higher and potentially dangerous radon levels.

Exposure to potential toxic substances creates another risk that must be considered prior to developing a green building.

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