Safe at Home
Federal Agencies
are Working Together to Protect Our Health
Each year, environmental hazards in the home place millions
of children and adults at risk. Indoor environmental hazards
typically pose far greater risks to human health than outdoor
pollution. Since people spend most of their time inside, the
home typically accounts for a major share of exposure to the
toxins, irritants, allergens, and gases that can cause diseases
and adversely affect our health. When housing is of substandard
quality, the risks are even greater. Older, dilapidated properties
usually pose the most severe indoor health hazards as they
are prone to a combination of lead dust and deteriorated paint,
along with hazards such as carbon monoxide, mold, cockroaches,
dust mites, pesticide residue, and radon.
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According to the Alliance for Healthy Homes, the following indoor
environmental hazards constitute the main offenders: Mold, mildew,
and pests; carbon monoxide poisoning from combustion appliances;
lead-based paint; exposures to asbestos particles, radon gas,
and secondhand smoke; and pesticide residues in the home.
These hazards often have overlapping causes, effects, and
in some cases, solutions. For example, inadequate ventilation
increases the concentration of indoor pollutants and exacerbates
moisture and humidity problems. Moisture causes paint deterioration,
which increases exposure to leaded dust and paint chips. Moisture
also encourages the growth of mold, mildew, and dust mites
which contribute to asthma and other respiratory diseases.
The use of common pesticides to control infestations can contaminate
homes with known carcinogens.
A growing body of scientific research has demonstrated that
children who live in homes that are well ventilated, dry,
and free of pests, poisons, and dangerous gases will be healthier
and lead fuller lives. According to the National Low Income
Housing Coalition (NLIHC), the burden of housing-related health
hazards falls disproportionately on the most vulnerable children
and communities. For example, lead paint has not been allowed
in residential use since 1978, but as many as 38 million homes
and apartments still have lead-based paint. Of those, 25 million
have significant lead hazards. Households with annual incomes
below $30,000 are twice as likely as others to have lead hazards
in their homes. Low-income children are eight times as likely
to be lead poisoned as high-income children, and African-American
children face five times the risk that white, non-Hispanic
children experience. Even low-level lead poisoning affects
a young child’s developing brain and nervous system,
causing reductions in IQ and attention span, learning disabilities,
hyperactivity, aggressive behavior, hearing loss, and coordination
problems. High-level lead exposures can cause comas, convulsions,
and even death.
NLIHC also reports that an estimated 40 percent of asthma
diagnoses in children under 16 years of age are associated
with residential exposures where triggers such as dust, mold,
pests (roaches, rats, mice), household pets, cold air, and
dry heat are often present. Asthma is the most common long-term
childhood disease in the United States, affecting 4.8 million
children, and is one of the leading causes of school absenteeism,
accounting for more than 10 million missed school days each
year. Asthma hospitalizations and deaths for minority and
low-income children are significantly higher than for the
general population.
The problems associated with indoor environmental hazards
are evident, but what about the solutions? In particular,
what are federal agencies doing about it? In April 1997, Executive
Order (E.O.) 13045 established The President’s Task
Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children.
The Task Force is co-chaired by the Secretary of the Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Administrator of
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The E.O. directed
each federal agency to make it a high priority to identify,
assess, and address children’s environmental health
and safety risks. The Task Force initially identified four
priority areas for immediate attention: asthma, unintentional
injuries, developmental disorders (including lead poisoning),
and cancer. Since then, the Task Force has added environmental
health in schools, the National Children’s Study, and
Children’s Health Month to its interagency activities.
As a part of The Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction
Act of 1992, the Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control
was established by HUD to bring health and housing professionals
together in a concerted effort to eliminate lead-based paint
hazards in America’s privately-owned and low-income
housing. One of the great achievements of this office is the
“Lead Safe Housing Rule”, which was published
in the Federal Register in September 1999. The new regulation
puts all of the Department’s lead-based paint regulations
in one part of the Code of Federal Regulations, making it
much easier to find HUD policy on the subject. The regulation
sets hazard reduction requirements that place greater emphasis
on reducing lead in house dust. As a result, federally assisted
housing now includes modern, more effective and scientifically
proven hazard identification and control methods to help ensure
childrens’ safety.
This regulation brings lead hazard control procedures into
routine housing finance, maintenance, and rehab systems, a
major change from the way the problem was approached in the
past. The focus now is on prevention: taking action long before
a child is exposed. HUD’s procedures for federally assisted
housing provide a template for promoting lead safety in other
housing with lead paint hazards. HUD is building the capacity
to implement lead-safe work practices among painters, remodelers,
renovators, and maintenance personnel, many of whom often
work in both assisted and non-assisted housing.
As efforts to eliminate lead hazards under the Lead-Based
Paint Hazard Control Program proved successful, attention
turned to addressing other household hazards. As a result,
Congress established HUD’s Healthy Homes Initiative
(HHI) in 1999 to “…develop and implement a program
of research and demonstration projects that would address
multiple housing-related problems affecting the health of
children.”
Since the 1980s, EPA and its federal partners have phased
out lead in gasoline, reduced lead in drinking water, reduced
lead in industrial air pollution, and banned or limited lead
used in consumer products, including residential paint. States
and municipalities have set up programs to identify and treat
lead poisoned children and to rehabilitate deteriorated housing.
Parents, too, have greatly helped to reduce lead exposures
to their children by cleaning and maintaining their homes,
having their children’s blood lead levels checked, and
promoting proper nutrition.
HUD is committed to eliminating childhood lead poisoning
by 2010. HUD’s 10-year strategy to eliminate childhood
lead paint poisoning, which was published by the President’s
Task Force, marked the first time that all three agencies
(HUD, EPA, and the CDC) have worked together in a coordinated
effort to address the hidden dangers posed by lead and other
common household contaminants.
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