December 12th, 2017
After decades of remarkable progress in eliminating lead-based paint hazards inAmerican homes, nearly half a million children still have blood-lead levels high enough to harm their intelligence, behavior and development, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite national alarm over soaring rates of asthma and the unhealthy conditions that cause the disease or trigger its worst effects, the number of diagnoses continues to climb, affecting more than one child in five in many poor neighborhoods. The side effects include 10 million lost school days every year, 2 million emergency room visits a year, and an incalculable loss of learning, physical exercise and healthy development for the affected children. Lead poisoning and asthma are just two of many chronic health conditions whose roots lie, to a significant degree, in the way housing is designed, built and maintained. More and more research has begun to show not only a clear connection between housing conditions and aggravated disease and injury, but increasingly clear means of remedying the worst residential hazards. There are sound, affordable methods of construction and maintenance that can make housing healthier for those who live there. Yet these methods are not well understood among housing developers and policy experts.And even when they are better understood, many builders and property owners still sometimes overestimate the cost of healthier practices, neglecting to factor in the long-term economies associated with energy efficiency, reduced costs of maintenance and repair, reduced liability and better lives for the residents.