is it safe for a pregnant woman to live in a new apartment

opo009 · Post by **opo009** » Sun May 03, 2015 12:58 pm

We are moving to a new apartment which is just built. My wife is having a baby. Anybody know in finland is it safe for a pregnant woman to live in a new apartment which is just finnished. I heard the smell in the new apartment is bad for the baby. Is that true?

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Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Sun May 03, 2015 1:23 pm

opo009 wrote:We are moving to a new apartment which is just built. My wife is having a baby. Anybody know in finland is it safe for a pregnant woman to live in a new apartment which is just finnished. I heard the smell in the new apartment is bad for the baby.

Freshly Finnished, you say? It can't be nothing but the smell of sisu... and manly tears. "Minä olen syönyt sen piirakan!"

Obviously, if you're worried about the evaporating glue and paint thinner and other chemicals used in a new construction, there's little else to do to alleviate that worry than not bring a newborn in an environment where the smell is present.

You might want to check out this brochure, especially the section "Pienet pintaremontit":
http://www.tukes.fi/Tiedostot/Kemikaali ... e_opas.pdf

opo009 · Post by **opo009** » Sun May 03, 2015 4:25 pm

Yes thats what I meant. Thanks for the reply bro. Seems better to wait for a wile before the smell's gone.

Flossy1978 · Post by **Flossy1978** » Mon May 04, 2015 4:14 am

I don't think there's any problem.

Just leave the windows open for a few days before you move in. It's still cold enough that the cold air will help get rid of the smells.

Your wife will be fine. So will the baby.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Mon May 04, 2015 4:48 am

I don't think there is any real problem, but cold air does not help here.

Kössi K · Post by **Kössi K** » Tue May 05, 2015 5:16 am

I doubt that there is a real problem there. It completely depends on the paints and other finishing materials that the building company has used. Some companies may have a list of the materials, paint names etc. that they have used, but it is not very common - however, if you are really worried, you can ask the company who is responsible for it.
Indeed, cold air won't do any good to paint drying, rather drier weather and temperature that the paint in question dries in, i.e. normal room temperatures or even cooler. I doubt that those new builds have any oil paints used (like old renovation projects might, if lucky), so the modern paints dry in a few days.
I'd also be quite surprised that they'd let anyone move in before all surfaces are finished drying and ready to move in. But as said, you may ask the companies involved, if still worried, and/or visit the place yourself to test it out first.

AldenG · Post by **AldenG** » Tue May 05, 2015 6:16 am

The glues and "engineered" woods are worse than modern paints, and they off-gas a lot longer than the old paints and varnishes did.

downhand · Post by **downhand** » Tue May 05, 2015 12:31 pm

Cold air doesn't help, it's not the temperature, rather the fact that on cold days it's usually windy, which is your best friend in that case. So indirectly, cold days do help. Or well, correlation doesn't mean causation.

opo009 · Post by **opo009** » Tue May 12, 2015 11:42 am

Thanks guys for replying. you helped a lot.

goodquestion · Post by **goodquestion** » Wed May 13, 2015 3:45 pm

A lot of construction adhesives and paint are now being marketed as "Low VOC", which at least here (NA), it termed to be safe for baby.

That said, when I bought a new townhouse, the kids never had a problem, but the dog did. He would start to vomit, and it would subside when we took him outside. Vet always said it was kennel cough, prescribed antibiotics. The thing was, our dog was never around other dogs, and was vaccinated against kennel cough.

We moved to an older house (1989 built), and guess what, no more symptoms.

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