What is a healthy house?
Housing health hazards
Moisture and mold
Controlling cockroaches
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

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.

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.

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
  

Controlling cockroaches

• Cockroach allergen, sometimes called "roach dust", is a potent, persistent and pervasive asthma trigger, increasing the frequency and severity of asthma attacks.
• Cockroaches have evaded extermination efforts for years, but new methods and safer products have proven effective.
• Cockroach Control Guide
• EHW conducted a study on effective cleanup of roach allergens. For more information see our Pests and Asthma section.
• Integrative Pest Management- How do you spell it? An Overview of IPM in Schools (pdf, 7 pgs)

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

Recommended Books and Periodicals

More Housing-Related Health Hazards Links

Links to EHW's Activities Related to Healthy House