Is Your Home Making You Sick?

You've done your best to conserve energy in your home — you've sealed off leaks from roof to basement and added insulation, and your efforts have been rewarded by a drop in your heating and cooling costs. But the very upgrades that have made your home more energy efficient and "green" may be putting your health at serious risk, says a report from the Institute of Medicine.

"America is in the midst of a large experiment," says committee chair John D. Spengler of Harvard School of Public Health. He says that weatherization and other cost-saving measures, along with new building materials and products, have been introduced into American homes with little consideration for their effects on human health. The result, the report warns, is increased levels of indoor contaminants and humidity.