Thank you to Cameron Sperance for giving us so many sides of the important issue of more affordable but more fire-risky construction (”Hidden dangers,” Address, Aug. 29). When code-setters (the state Board of Building Regulation and Standards) choose between safety and cost, everyone should pay attention. The Commonwealth, its people, and other agencies can find ways to reduce the costs of building and homeownership without making homes less safe.
The problems result when we fail to use government to study the systems that support us and to take actions we need, and when instead we think that businesses will fulfill our needs as they pursue financial opportunities. But the fact is that businesses don’t necessarily give us more local, more equitable, or more sustainable production.
The use of less-safe materials is a symptom of a larger problem: reluctance to use the tools of governance, which include assistance and actions to foster, not force, change. We showed with environmental laws and community development programs and incentives for solar and the state’s Toxics Use Reduction Act that we can create programs and incentives for businesses to change.
Loading a house with chemicals is not just a fire hazard. It’s also a regrettable adaptation to an underlying problem. We must not miss opportunities to change the way people make decisions and the conditions under which they make them. If we encourage our code-setters now to choose safety, this should help spur the right kind of innovation.
Rick Reibstein
Lexington
The writer worked for the Office of Technical Assistance from 1989 to 2015 in what is now the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
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September 05, 2021 at 01:31PM
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We shouldn’t have to choose between safety and cost in home building - The Boston Globe
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