What is a healthy house?
Housing health hazards
Moisture and mold
Pests & Pesticides - both not healthy
Household products and building materials
Household hazardous waste disposal
Prompts for healthy habits
Kitchen smoke is a leading cause of death in developing countries
Links to more information

Healthy Houses/Sustainable Communities/Livable Planet

Environmental scientists consistently prioritize the indoor environment as the source of hazards of significant public health concern. These are related to exposure to lead-contaminated dust and soil, asthma allergen sources (mold, roaches, rodents, pets), respiratory irritants (combustion gases and particles from tobacco smoke, heating and cooking), and toxic chemicals (pesticides, building materials, consumer products).

People living in cities spend 90 of their time indoors, where pollutant exposures are commonly many times higher than outdoors. Young children and the elderly are especially at risk for housing-related illnesses due to both higher exposures and greater vulnerability.

The hazards for low-income people, living in substandard housing (roof and plumbing leaks, pest infestation and pesticide use, faulty combustion appliances), are particularly serious. Deteriorated housing also imperils housing affordability, particularly because of greater electricity, natural gas, water, and hazard control costs.

Deteriorated housing also imperils housing affordability, particularly as impacted by electricity, natural gas and water usage, but including also hazard control costs (lead, mold, radon and asbestos). Beyond the dwelling unit, community design affects health (promotion of walking, bike riding, parks), safety (street level activity, visibility) and social cohesion (opportunities for interaction).

More broadly yet, there are environmental impacts of energy use, transportation modes, building materials and waste disposal/recycling practices. These choices can threaten or enhance human health and the health of the planet through increasing or reducing pollution and global warming.

More about putting neighborhoods on the path to healthy, green affordable housing

Building Strategic Alliances for Healthy Housing:
In September 2009, EHW received a grant from the Centers for Disease Control to engage stakeholders to integrate Healthy Housing considerations into the wide range of housing decisions and actions throughout the house life cycle. Alliances for Healthy Housing abstract

What is a healthy house?

A healthy house is:

• Dry (moisture is controlled to lessen mold, dust mites, paint failure, pests and out-gassing)
• Well-ventilated (dirty air is exhausted and diluted)
• Free from:
  1. Combustion by-products (through properly working flues, chimney, and kitchen exhaust fans)
  2. Pests and pesticides (through integrated pest management to control pests and pesticide exposure)
  3. Lead hazards (through lead-safe maintenance, repair and renovation)
  4. Other contaminants (through careful selection of building materials and consumer products) 
• Clean and uncluttered (in order to reduce contaminant build up in dust, make cleaning easier and remove hiding places for pests)

Resources for building, renovating and maintaining a healthy house

Jim LaRue's Seven steps to a healthier home

Housing health hazards
Pollution may be a problem in the place we expect to be safest—our homes. Indeed, many of the regulated outdoor pollutants are commonly found at higher levels indoors.

• A quick overview of housing-related health hazards such as carbon monoxide, asbestos, radon, pesticides, household products, and tobacco smoke and how to properly handle them 
• Residential pollution hazards from the Greater Cleveland Environment Book
• Indoor Asthma Triggers Control Guide and our asthma page.

Moisture and mold
A number of serious health hazards are associated with excess moisture in the home, including mold, dust mites, and cockroaches. These hazards can contribute to many health problems including asthma.

Home moisture audit
Jim LaRue, EHW's building science consultant, provides a step-by-step guide for diagnosing moisture problems in the home.

Also, see Jim's Checklist of moisture trouble spots.

Controlling excess moisture
Environmental Health Watch has been involved in numerous projects controlling moisture and mold. This report Moisture Control Treatments in Older Housing (2007) represents the latest thinking on controlling moisture and its effects.

• EHW moisture control projects
• Links to moisture control resources
  

Pests & Pesticides - both not healthy

IPM - Safer and More Effective Pest Control

• The old methods of pest control - still too commonly used - rely on monthly spraying of volatile and toxic insecticides for roaches and use of strong poisons for rodents. These methods are costly, ineffective in the long run, and potentially dangerous. Even when done properly, spraying can leave persistent pesticide residue. Irritant chemicals in some insecticide sprays can actually trigger asthma attacks (see Asthma, Children and Pesticides: What you need to know, Beyond Pesticides - National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides). Poisons used for rodents are one of the most common sources of poisoning of young children.
• The state-of-the-art in the pest control industry is Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which is safer, more effective, and cheaper in the long run than the old methods. IPM utilizes pest monitoring, environmental controls, mechanical capture, and targeted applications of small amounts of low-volatility, least-toxic pesticides.

Roaches and Rodents - Potent Asthma Triggers

• Multiple factors contribute to the severity of asthma. Allergens associated with cockroaches and rodents are potent and pervasive asthma triggers. They are especially prevalent in substandard housing. For example, in the National Cooperative Inner-City Asthma Study 37% of the children were allergic to cockroach allergen. High levels of cockroach allergen was found in the dust of 50% of the children's bedrooms. Sensitivity and exposure were significantly associated with increased likelihood of asthma symptoms.
• EHW conducted a study on effective cleanup of roach allergens. For more information see our Pests and Asthma section.

Household products and building materials

• Search the National Library of Medicine Household Products Database for listings of a wide variety of household products, from deodorants and laundry detergents to lawn care products.  Health effects and ingredients are listed with links to the TOXNET database.
• Cleaning for Health - This report from Inform Inc. is a one-stop guide to environmentally preferable cleaning products and methods that have been effectively used in office buildings, schools, hospitals and other facilities in the United States and Canada.
• The Integrated Waste Management Board's Building Material Emissions Study (2003) measures emissions of products common to classrooms and State construction in comparison to alternative products.

Household hazardous waste disposal

• The 6 "R"s of Household Hazardous Waste Disposal include the familiar three -- reduce, reuse, and recycle -- plus three others -- render less harmful, route properly, and retain. 
• Household hazardous waste tips on disposal methods from The Greater Cleveland Environment Book (1998).
• For household hazardous waste collection dates in Cuyahoga County, Ohio and answers to your specific questions check out the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District. 

Prompts for healthy habits

• A prompt is a cue that reminds us to carry out an action we might otherwise forget to do. We often do not take action for the simple reason that we forget. Prompts are helpful when people are already predisposed to doing an activity and just need to be reminded to do it.
• EHW and artist Ralph Solonitz developed prompts for a project in partnership with Alliance for Health Housing and Cleveland Tenants Organization (funded by US EPA and the Cleveland Foundation). The project helps older people deal with housing related health hazards.

• Cooking with wood, crop residue, and dung gives off high levels of smoke with carbon monoxide, particulates, cancer-causing chemicals, and other harmful compounds. Cooking smoke contributes to severe respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and asthma.  Cooking smoke kills an estimated 1.6 million people per year, mostly women and children, according to the report Smoke - The Killer in the Kitchen from the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG).The ITDG recommends stoves with chimneys or smoke hoods as an affordable way to reduce smoke in living areas. 
• Indoor Air Pollution - Silent Killer of Women:

More information on housing health hazards

• EPA - Mold
• Safer Products Project
• National Center for Healthy Housing - Essentials in Healthy Homes Practitioner Training Materials and Bibliography
• Home Moisture Audit - from NC and A&T State University Cooperative Extension
• Microwave News

Other sites -

• Alliance for Healthy Homes
• National Center for Healthy Housing
• Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Centers for Disease Control
• More links

Recommended Books and Periodicals

Links to EHW's Activities Related to Healthy House