Feb. 14, 2013: Federal Agencies to Work Together to Make Homes Healthier
The initiative’s goal is to address preventable hazards associated with the home. The Strategy for Action encourages federal agencies to take preemptive actions that will help reduce the number of American homes with health and safety hazards.
According to the government, people in the United States spend about 70 percent of their time in a home. Currently, millions of U.S. homes have moderate to severe physical housing problems, including roofing problems; HVAC, plumbing, and electrical deficiencies; water leaks and intrusion; high radon gas levels; and more. These conditions are associated with a wide range of health issues, including unintentional injuries, respiratory illnesses like asthma and radon-induced lung cancer, and they result in lost school days for children, as well as lost productivity in the labor force. The health and economic burdens from preventable hazards associated with the home are considerable, and cost billions of dollars.
The Strategy for Action unifies, for the first time, federal action to advance healthy housing, demonstrating the connection between housing conditions and residents’ health. It also promotes strategies and methods intended to reduce in-home health hazards in a cost-effective manner.
“It is clear that unhealthy and unsafe housing has an impact on the health of millions of people in the United States, which is why we must do everything we can to ensure that individuals and families have a healthy place to call home,” said Donovan.
“Energy efficiency and healthy homes are inextricably linked,” said Poneman. “We cannot, in good conscience, pursue one in the absence of the other. DOE is committed to ensuring that our efforts towards creating an efficient national housing stock also strive to maximize the health and safety of the families we serve.”
The overall vision for the Strategy is to reduce the number of American homes with residential health and safety hazards, achieved through five goals:
1. Establish healthy homes recommendations.
2. Encourage adoption of healthy homes recommendations.
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3. Create and support training and workforce development to address health hazards in housing.
4. Educate the public about healthy homes.
5. Support research that informs and advances healthy housing in a cost-effective manner.
For more on the Strategy for Action, visit http://healthyhomes.hud.gov.
Publication date: 2/11/2013
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