The changes cross multiple health agencies.

This image shows an exterior view of the Manoa Heritage Center in Honolulu, founded in 1996 by Sam and Mary Cooke in 1996. (Kristina Linnea Garcia via AP)Manoa Heritage Center, created in 1996 by Sam and Mary Cooke, hopes to survive by making the transition from historic home to house museum.

Built in 1911 by architects Walter Emory and Marshall Webb in a half-timbered style that harks back to Tudor England, the home has a basalt rock foundation. The property also has an educational center, several gardens, and the last extant agricultural heiau in the area.The heiau, a stone platform and traditional place of worship, sat in “benign neglect” for over 100 years, says Jenny Leung, the center’s cultural site manager. Stones fell into weeds. Rubber trees and night-blooming cereus grew in the cracks. Center staff worked with the Hawaii State Historic Preservation office on an archeological survey before removing foliage and restacking the stones.Now, the heiau and gardens are open to visitors, more than half of whom are local schoolchildren, says Leung.

In three to five years, the center hopes to open the doors of the historic home itself to visitors, says Lisa Solomine, the executive director.“It’s like building a museum from scratch,” she says. The closets still contain shopping boxes and old shoes, says Leung.

Community members across the state and beyond have offered help, Solomine says.

“Everyone who sets foot at the site, it’s almost like they sigh a breath of relief, and they say, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s so peaceful and calm here.’”Experts say it’s difficult to draw conclusions from prior studies. The Consumer Reports study, which was published in late February, said there were dangerous chemicals like lead, benzene and other carcinogens in 10 of the most popular synthetic braiding products.

While experts said the presence of the chemicals is concerning and confusing, they noted the study didn’t go through the rigorous scrutiny that it takes to get published in a peer-reviewed science or medical journal.Javon Ford, a cosmetic chemist who talks about his work on social media, questioned the report’s findings, saying “the data set is so limited.” Consumer Reports only sampled two of each product, despite thousands on the market.

James Rogers, the head of product safety at Consumer Reports who led the study, said his hope was to get the information out there because of the lack of research. He noted that it was a pilot project, but that “we thought the results were important enough to start the conversation.”Research published in 2020 in the journal Environmental Health Insights showed synthetic hair let off volatile organic compounds — chemicals that can easily evaporate into the air — when heated. Synthetic hair is sealed when braided, either by burning it or dipping it in hot water. That study detected many of the same chemicals named in the Consumer Reports study, like the known carcinogen benzene.