Designing for Preventative Health – Part Two
How designers, alongside doctors and other medical professionals, have a direct responsibility to ensure public health.
The second half of an interview with Dr. Adrienne Sprouse, Medical Director of the Environmental Medicine Center in New York City. Conducted by Maren Maier. Part one was published on Wednesday, October 8th.
Executive Summary
Dr. Adrien Sprouse discusses her initiatives and efforts to reform healthcare in taking a more preventative track. Dr. Sprouse believes that by avoiding key hazardous chemicals in the design of everyday things we can save ourselves from major health issues and also reduce overall healthcare costs. Through design, we can benefit our personal health, and our bottom line. In light of this Dr. Sprouse believes that strategic design is in a position to play a major part in preventative care.
On a national level, economic analysis shows that 75% of health care nationwide– or about $1.7 trillion annually – goes toward the treatment of chronic illness. In addition to treatment costs, chronic diseases also take a toll on the nation’s economy by lowering productivity and slowing economic growth.5 In 2007, the U.S. spent over $2.2 trillion on health care (16 percent of U.S. GDP), the highest proportion in U.S. history and a larger percentage of GDP than any other developed country.6 Researchers also attribute an annual loss of $1 trillion nationwide in indirect costs due to employees who miss work or under perform because of chronic illness.7
The economic and health risks are too compelling to ignore and beg a question worth asking: is what we are designing and selling to consumers exacerbating our health problems? And more importantly, what can we do about it?
Citizens want to know. 84% percent of Americans want the United States government and the medical community to increase investment in prevention. EPA Administrator Jackson offered a common sense equation in her recent speech to the American Public Health Association: By declining exposure to toxic chemicals, the U.S. can decrease the incidence of chronic disease and lower health care costs. Dr. Sprouse believes the main challenge lies beyond the medical and policy community, in the hands of an unexpected bunch, who arguably have the greatest influence on our health – designers.
Everything we ingest, touch, inhale, and interact with at home, at work, or in our communities, begins as a design. And every designer who is involved in that process has a choice to make – to design either for wellbeing or for a quick buck at the expense of wellbeing. Regardless of design discipline, designers today must grasp their responsibility in ensuring public health, and must embrace strategic design to create healthier products, materials, structures, and systems for end users.
The pervasiveness and gravity of the environmental toxicity problem requires crucial partnerships between designers and R&D teams, scientists, doctors, and policy-makers, both within corporations and across industries. Designers must learn the key toxic chemicals in their respective field and take the lead in cross-disciplinary teams to re-invent products that are benign by design. If the design community embraces this responsibility, strategic design can become a fundamental tool in preventative care.
Toxicity Triggers
Identifying Toxins in the Design of a Typical House
In the chart that follows, Dr. Sprouse walks us through a typical house to help explain the importance of designers in every corner of a home. She illustrates how each design discipline has a stake in the process, by peeling back the layers of a new home as it is built. She tells us where the problems lurk, describes which chemicals or materials to avoid, and offers healthy alternatives for designing a chemical free home.
Download a word version of the above chart here.
Green Chemistry and Design – The 12 Principles of Green Chemistry
Every designer should know the basic tenants of green chemistry and work with scientists and engineers to incorporate these principles into the make-up of finished products. The twelve principles are as follows:
- Prevent waste that requires treatment or clean up
- Design Chemicals and products to be fully effective that have little or no toxicity
- Develop less hazardous ways to synthesize chemicals
- Use renewable raw materials
- Use catalysts to make chemicals instead of reagents that create more waste
- Avoid chemical derivatives
- Reduce waste atoms
- Avoid using solvents whenever possible
- Increase energy efficiency by running chemical reactions at ambient temperatures
- Design chemicals to breakdown after use
- Monitor for by-products in real time
- Minimize the potential for chemical accidents
Support TSCA (The Toxic Substances Control Act)
A few months ago, New Jersey Senator Lautenberg introduced legislation in the Senate that would update a law dating back to 1976, entitled TSCA. TSCA, or the Toxic Substances Control Act, is the only environmental law that has not been updated since it was passed. The law in its current form prohibits the manufacture or importation of chemicals that are not on the TSCA inventory. TSCA, however, gives a “free pass” to all chemicals in existence before 1976, the report states. Those chemicals are not required to undergo any safety testing. There are over 85,000 chemicals in the database, and the law has proven to be ineffective, since many chemicals are grandfathered in the TSCA and not subject to mandatory safety tests. Senator Lautenberg’s proposal is to update TSCA to increase the database and shift the burden on industry to test the chemical themselves, proving its inherent safety before introducing it in commerce. If TSCA reform leads to reductions in toxic chemical exposures that translate into just a tenth of one percent reduction in health care costs, the U.S. healthcare system will save at least $5 billion every year. If you support this change, make sure to contact your local senator and petition for TSCA reform.
Catalyst Term: Out-gassing (or off-gassing)
Outgassing, or offgassing, is the slow release of a gas that was affixed to, trapped, frozen, or absorbed in a material over time. Outgassing can be significant if it collects in a closed environment where air is stagnant or re-circulated, for examples in a new car smell. Certain softeners and solvents that are released from many industrial products, especially plastics, are considered to be harmful to human health.
Catalyst Term: Mycotoxins from Mold
Certain species of mold produce toxic emissions called mycotoxins that are released to give the fungi a competitive edge over other microorganisms and fungi. Unfortunately, mycotoxins can also be incredibly harmful to humans causing a variety of responses including cold/flu-like symptoms, sore throats, headaches, nose bleeds, fatigue, diarrhea, dermatitis, and immune suppression. Some mycotoxins may also be carcinogenic and teratogenic. Molds that have been known to produce these toxins are Acremonium, Alternaria, Aspergillus, Chaetomium, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Penicillium, and Stachybotrys.
Catalyst Term: VOCs
Volatile Organic Compounds comprise hundreds of natural and man-made, carbon-based agents. They react quickly with other carbon-based compounds, and evaporate easily, making them ideal solvents. VOCs can be found in disinfectants, pesticides, paints, printing inks, adhesives, and other products. Formaldehyde is the best known VOC.
Related Resources
The American Environmental Health Foundation www.aehf.com
The Indoor Air Quality Association www.IAQA.org
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America www.aafa.org
PBS Bill Moyers Special: The Body Burden http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/problem/bodyburden.html
CNN Toxic America http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/toxic.america/
Toxic Beauty, Samuel Epstein
Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families http://www.saferchemicals.org/
References
[5] Fruh, D. and Kott, A., et al. The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD), Almanac of Chronic Disease 2009
[6] Fruh, D. and Kott, A., et al. The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD), Almanac of Chronic Disease 2009
[7] Fruh, D. and Kott, A., et al. The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease (PFCD), Almanac of Chronic Disease 2009
About the Author:
Dr. Adrienne Sprouse
Dr. Sprouse is court certified as an Expert Witness in Environmental Medicine. In the past she has also served as the Environmental Specialist for Fox Good Day New York, and has been interviewed on many television programs including ABC News, NBC News, New York One, and the Tony Brown Show in addition to interviews in the Daily News, New York Times, New York Post, New York Health and Hospital News, and Big Apple Parent. Dr. Sprouse is currently the Medical Director of Manhattan Health Consultants in New York City. Read more about Dr. Sprouse here