Although most common in office buildings and schools, the indoor pollution that causes sick – building syndrome can also occur in houses. Imagine a typical home. The people who live there burn oil, wood, or gas for cooking and heating. They might smoke cigarettes, pipes, or cigars. They use chemicals for cleaning. They use products made of particleboard, which is an inexpensive kind of board made of very small pieces of wood held together with a chemical. They use products such as computers, fax machines, and copiers that are made of plastic. These products give off chemicals that we can’t see, but we do breathe them in. In some homes, carbon monoxide from cars in the garage can enter the house. And in many areas, the ground under the building might send a dangerous gas called radon into the home. The people in the house are breathing in a “chemical soup.”