Sick buildings caused by more than just poor HVAC systems

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A 1984 World Health Organization report suggested up to 30% of new and remodelled buildings worldwide may be subject of complaints related to poor indoor air quality. Sick building causes are frequently pinned down to flaws in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Other causes have been attributed to contaminants produced by gases emitted by some types of building materials, volatile organic compounds, moulds and industrial chemicals. Lack of adequate fresh-air intake and air filtration are also blamed.

New cause

However, another, major cause of building sickness has recently been discovered. Wilhelm Mohorn, inventor of the Aquapol technology for reversing rising damp in buildings, noticed that once rising damp had been eliminated - using a space-age 'free energy' device that reverses the electrical polarity of water molecules in the walls - the occupants frequently reported improved health and general well-being.

"Improved health and well-being was not something we were expecting, but given the number of positive reports we were receiving, we realised that building sickness is a real condition and we needed to do proper scientific analysis to understand what was going on," says Warren Bruckmann, marketing executive for Aquapol South Africa.

Aquapol called in one of the world's leading building ecologists, Professor K E Lotz of Germany, to conduct further research on the subject. He and his team measured the geological disturbances caused by underground watercourses and found that underground water acted as a kind of amplifier for positive electrical ions in the surface air, which is well known to be damaging to health. When the Aquapol device was placed in the building, not only did the building dry up, it increased the presence of negative ions in the air, which is health-promoting.

"It is a well-known fact that people, who go to the mountains, the sea or waterfalls, experience resurgence in health and well-being, due to the higher concentrations of negative ions in the air," says Bruckmann. "The research found that the device generated the same effects in buildings."

Negative ions are also known to improve physical and mental performance, increase oxygen flow through the body and reduce carbon dioxide flow, thereby improving respiratory and metabolic performance. They are also known to aid general wellbeing, while increasing blood pH levels, which in turn augments the secretion of the mucous membranes. This causes better binding of oxygen to the blood pigment, thereby increasing the performance of athletes and students.

Biological effects

Professor Lotz' research found that those who (unknowingly) had the device installed in their rooms reported the following biological effects: better sleep and well-being and an improved room climate. A scientific test, done with the means of a recognised electrical body resistance method (by the Research Circle for Geology, headed by Dr Hartmann in Germany) proved that the device was able to limit or prevent entirely, geological disturbances caused by underground watercourses.

In 1990, a unique study was commissioned and financed by Domestic Architecture Research in Austria with 6943 tests were carried out on 985 test subjects, employing 24 different methods of measurement. The result showed that locational disturbance (such as the positioning of a building above an underground watercourse) has a negative effect on a person's regulatory system. Despite the scale of this study, very little attention has been given to the subject of locational disturbance in either domestic architecture or medicine.

Building on Tesla's work

One of the most reliable methods of measurement was the one of body resistance. The human body, like an antenna, conducts electricity, radioactivity and other environmental particles and waveforms. Mohorn has received numerous awards for his discovery and development of the device, which is based on earlier discoveries by Nicola Tesla, the genius inventor of alternating current, radio and other technologies in common use today. Tesla's dream was to provide free energy to the world, and he actually developed the technology to accomplish this, using the natural energy that is ambient in the atmosphere. This 'natural earth field' is influenced in its intensity by a watercourse or other geological factors, and has a powerful effect on water and water-dense organisms such as human beings, animals or plants.

Mohorn took these discoveries a step further by developing the Aquapol technology - where a device the size of a cake tin, with no electrical connections or moving parts - is capable of driving thousands of tons of water into the ground using this "free energy."

As Professor Lotz has discovered, it does more than this; it neutralises the negative anomalies in the natural earth field (which is amplified by underground water), and in the process creates a healthier living environment. It also reduces radioactive levels in the atmosphere, which is a particular benefit for people living in mining areas such as Johannesburg, where radon (a radioactive emission) is prevalent.

Reducing radon effects in mining areas

"Radon and radioactivity are a particular problem is areas such as Wemmer Pan, south of Johannesburg, due to mining activity that has occurred there in the last 100 years," says Bruckmann. "Radon is a well-known cancer-causing substance."

The Aquapol device has been found to raise the pH reading of water to a more alkaline level, which is well known to be beneficial for human health, since most diseases thrive in an acidic environment, and are impeded in their progress by maintaining a more alkaline level. Ideally, the human body should maintain a pH reading of between 7 and 7.4 to maintain high resistance to disease.

The device has also been found to increase the electrical conductivity of water, which in turn has a profound influence on the mineral-bearing capacity of water. Water with low conductivity will be found to have lower mineral content and vice versa.

The research literature provided by Professor Lotz provides a range of anecdotal evidence to support the claims of curing 'sick' buildings. "In the 1960s, a Dr Ebeleseder moved into his house. Very soon, massive health problems commenced, allergy from 'house dust mites' and disturbed sleep, while his children contracted tonsillitis and flu. Dr Ebeleseder, himself a medical practitioner, knew this indisposition was caused by geo-pathogenic disturbance zones. For a considerable time however, he remained helpless concerning this problem. In 1988, he accidentally found out about Aquapol and, though sceptical in the beginning, he noticed a marked improvement in the health of his family in two to three weeks after installation. The allergy from which he suffered vanished, as did his children's symptoms.

"We were surprised and delighted by the outcome of these studies by some of the top scientists in the world. Our main business is curing rising damp, but we like to think of ourselves as curing sick buildings," concludes Bruckmann.

For more information, go to www.aquapol.co.za