Employing volcanic tuff minerals in interior architecture design to reduce microbial contaminants and airborne fungal carcinogens of indoor environments

Abstract

Indoor volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have posed significant risks to human health since people have both shifted to a life spent, for the most part, indoors. Further, changes in materials used in the construction of buildings, furnishings, and tools either leak or encourage the production of VOCs. Whether these enclosed areas are residences, hospitals or workplaces (specifically composting facilities or closed farm buildings for raising livestock), VOCs can rise to levels that threaten people's health. VOCs can either originate from phenolic and benzene-like compounds in building materials and office furniture or from molds (fungi) growing inside improperly ventilated or sealed buildings. Regardless of the source, exposure to VOCs could lead to significant health concerns from sick-building syndrome, 'leukemia houses,' in-hospital fungemia cases or occupation-associated cancer epidemics due to aflatoxicosis. Innovative 21st-century building materials could offer solutions to these challenges. We propose that volcanic materials, clays and minerals (volcanic tuff, modified clay montmorillonite and mineral clinoptilolite), in their original or chemically modified form, could act like synthetic lungs in building walls, breathing and filtering VOCs, and thus limiting human exposure to disease.

Dye removal of AR27 with enhanced degradation and power generation in a microbial fuel cell using bioanode of treated clinoptilolite-modified graphite felt

“…Clinoptilolite is a member of the natural zeolite family and the chemical formula (Na,K)6Si30Al6O72•nH2O, exhibits a three-dimensional crystal structure. The presence of negative charges on the surface of clinoptilolite enables it to repel bacteria that acquire negative charges due to the presence of lipoproteins in the bacterial cell wall along with carboxylates as their active functional groups (Gedikoglu et al 2012). Moreover, it is well known that the cationic surfactants such as hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (HDTMA-Br) can be used to modify the negatively charged surface, and thus increase the adhesion of negatively charged bacteria due to hydrophobic and ionic interaction between the cells and the surface (Hrenovic et al 2008).…”

Healthier Tribal Housing: Combining the Best of Old and New

“…“I’m definitely happy that these walls are earthen plaster,” he says from inside the new home, which he helped build. Clay-based plaster resists mold due to its breathability, and clay’s negative ionization is widely touted as absorbing positively charged toxicants and pathogens, although to date there has been only limited peer-reviewed study of this phenomenon in indoor environments 16 , 17 . Untreated earthen plaster can slowly release dust of its own as it ages, but this may be prevented with a sealing layer of paint, according to Croft Elsaesser, president of American Clay Enterprises, which sells such plasters.…”

Photon Shielding Features of Quarry Tuff

“…Thus, different shielding properties of building materials [1][2][3], ores [4], glasses [5,6], plastics and polymers [7], Lunar soil samples [8], gemstones, like the Amethyst [9], Boron containing materials [10], alloys [11], nanoparticles of W and polyethylene dispersed in polymer [12], and concrete with different aggregates [13][14][15][16] have been reported. Some of the shielding features include the effective atomic number, the effective electron density, the half value layer, the energy absorption and exposure buildup factors, the linear attenuation coefficient (P), and the mass attenuation coefficient (P U) for photons.…”