The Impact of building material

Exposure to air pollution represents one of the most important health hazard for either mankind and all the ecosystem, pollution that is not present only outdoor but also indoor. Contrary to what is generally assumed, air in several indoor environments is often more polluted than outdoor air. This is because of the many sources of indoor pollution, which include mold and pollen, tobacco smoke, household products and pesticides, and materials usually used in buildings such as formaldehyde and organic compounds in general. Health effects from indoor air pollutants generally occur after long or repeated periods of exposure and they can be severely debilitating or fatal and we have also to consider that, mainly in the urban areas in more developed Countries, population passes most of the time in closed rooms, houses, offices and schools. There is still uncertainty about the level of concentrations that can produce specific health problems but it is accepted that even low concentrations of some pollutants that are ubiquitous can be very dangerous often causing undesired effects on health from sensory discomfort to serious consequences for physical conditions. To improve this situation, new class of building materials can be a good tool to play an active role in environment remediation. At the beginning of the industrial productions, porcelain grés tiles were considered as just a technical material, aesthetically not very beautiful. Today thanks to new industrial production methods, both properties and beauty of these materials completely fit the market requests. In particular, the possibility to prepare slabs of large sizes is the new frontier of building materials. However, it is time to go further the simple sustainable materials and to produce cements and tiles and in general building materials no longer inert but able to ”work” to improve the well-being of people living in those spaces. In fact, besides the noteworthy architectural features, new surface properties can be introduced in the last generation of generating a new class of ecoactive materials. In particular, deposition of TiO2 transforms the traditional ceramic surface into a photocatalytic eco-active material able to reduce polluting molecules present in air and water, to eliminate bacteria and to reduce the surface dirt thanks to the self-cleaning property, but keeping unchanged the standard requirements with respect to hardness, lack of porosity, vitrified surface, durability typical of a porcelain grés tiles.