Material Health. Interactions between Materials, People and the Environment

Material health—that is, the impact of building materials and other materials on human health—has received growing attention since well before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through erosion, corrosion and biological degradation, a material’s constituent substances are released into the environment. They may enter the human body through indoor air or direct contact with the skin. The sustainability of a material encompasses not only its energy balance, but also its impact on people and the environment. In the 1990s, attention focused primarily on building performance, particularly the energy consumed during a building’s operation. Since around 2010, greater emphasis has been placed on the embodied energy stored in materials and on the energy required for the construction and dismant