National Healthy Housing Standard
Authors: National Center for Healthy Housing and the American Public Health Association
Read the full resource: http://www.nchh.org/Portals/0/Contents/NHHS_Full_Doc.pdf
Excerpt
Our focus in the National Healthy Housing Standard is the over 100 million existing homes in our country that offer the most significant opportunity to protect public health and reduce health disparities. Although new homes are typically safer and healthier, having been built to modern building standards, technologies and regulations, and to ever-changing consumer expectations, the new construction market remains a fraction of the overall housing stock in the country. In contrast, regulations and industry practices affecting existing owner-occupied and rental housing, the focus of this document, have not kept pace with our knowledge about housing-related disease and prevention of disease and injury through routine maintenance. The consequences of not dealing with substandard housing are dire in both human wellbeing and cost:
- About 20-30 percent of asthma cases are linked to home environmental conditions.
- 21,000 lung cancer deaths result from radon in homes.
- Over 24 million homes that have lead-based paint hazards put children at risk of the irreversible disease of childhood lead poisoning.
- Home injuries are the leading causes of death for young children and put 6 million adults over 65 in hospitals and nursing homes due to preventable falls.