national levels for clean production, healthy communities, environmental justice, and a sustainable future. It tested over 1,000 flooring samples and searched carefully for substances linked to asthma, learning disabilities, cancer, and more. While many floors received less-than-stellar grades, the study points to types of flooring that deserve greater consideration as environmentally friendly choices for indoor air quality.
The good news? When testing hard-surface flooring like cork and hardwood, the Ecology Center found them to be free of lead, cadmium, mercury and other hazardous metals found in other types of manufactured floors.
For cork floors in particular, this is just the beginning of the story. This remarkable floor has natural benefits that others simply can't match. For example, few homeowners know that cork contains Suberin in its air-bound cell structure. Suberin is a known inhibitor of microbes that cause mold and mildew, making cork floors hypoallergenic and insect resistant.
Cork is also naturally cushioned and warm. And how about this for earth-friendly? Cork floors are made without cutting down oak trees. Cork bark is carefully harvested once every nine years, with a centuries-old tradition using hand tools, (a process ensuring forests will remain undamaged). It's not unusual to have a 200 year-old tree still producing cork bark.
Very few flooring companies have embraced the cause like TORLYS, a forward-thinking Canadian company that is ahead of the curve in creating environmentally friendly hard-surface flooring. TORLYS is an industry leader that has found beneficial ways to use cork not only for its cork floors, but also as an attached underlay for its beautiful hardwood and leather floors.
Complete results of the home improvement - flooring study can be found by visiting
healthystuff.org, and information on healthy flooring options like cork, hardwood, leather and laminate can be found at
TORLYS.com.