Piling It On

When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came down with "sick building syndrome" in its Washington, D.C. headquarters back in 1988, the irony was lost on no one. Health problems there erupted after installation of new carpeting, but the cause was never clearly identified. Suspicion hovered around chemical by-product emissions from carpet backing or adhesives, including something called 4-phenylcyclohexene (4-PC). The EPA finally replaced the carpet with a different, urethane-backed version, which solved the problem.

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