Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program

1. Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program Patrick Bloomingdale, Outreach Coordinator Texas Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program Texas Department of State Health Services

2. Background • Housing conditions can affect public health • Approx. 38 million U.S. homes with lead-based paint • Lead poisoning, injuries, respiratory diseases (asthma), quality of life issues linked to substandard housing issues nationwide • Other: fire, electrical injuries, falls, rodent bites, indoor toxins, tobacco smoke, pesticides

3. Disparities in Healthy Homes • Greatest Risk: Older properties that are poorly maintained • Substandard Housing: homes with severe or moderate problems – US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) • Age, Income and Ethnicity, and Geographical Location

4. Age • Children more vulnerable to environmental exposure due to developing organs and nervous system • Elderly more susceptible to certain housing related hazards such as injuries and falls

5. Income and Ethnicity • Low-income, minority populations are more likely to live in substandard housing • Structural defects • Environmental hazards • High concentrations of mouse and cockroach allergens

6. Vulnerable Populations Defined • Any population that is at an increased risk for adverse health-related outcomes due to housing patterns driven by racial, cultural, social and economic conditions. - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

7. What Is CDC’s Healthy Homes Initiative? CDC’s Healthy Homes Initiative is a coordinated, comprehensive, and holistic approach to preventing diseases and injuries that result from housing-related hazards and deficiencies. The focus of the initiative is to identify health, safety, and quality-of-life issues in the home environment and to act systematically to eliminate or mitigate problems.

8. The Healthy Homes Initiative seeks to: • Broaden the scope of single-issue public health programs, such as childhood lead poisoning prevention and asthma programs, to address multiple housing deficiencies that affect health and safety. • Build capacity and competency among environmental public health practitioners, public health nurses, housing specialists, managers, and others who work in the community, to develop and manage comprehensive and effective healthy homes programs. • Promote, develop, and implement cross-disciplinary activities at the federal, state, tribal, and community levels to address the problem of unhealthy and unsafe housing through surveillance, research, and comprehensive prevention programs. • Facilitate the collection of local data and monitor progress toward reducing or eliminating housing deficiencies and hazards.

9. Cont. - Healthy Homes Initiative • Expand collaborations with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, national associations and organizations, academia, community-based organizations, and others, including the American Public Health Association, National Environmental Health Association, and the World Health Organization. • Promote research to determine causal relations between substandard housing and adverse health effects. • Develop guidelines to assess, reduce, and eliminate health and safety risks. • Identify and implement low-cost, reliable, and practical methods to reduce health and safety risks in substandard housing.

10. Related Websites • Lead Strategic Planning Committee • http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/lead/SPCLEAD2020.shtm • National Center for Healthy Homes • http://www.nchh.org/Policy/National-Safe-and-Healthy-Housing-Coalition.aspx • CDC's Healthy Homes Initiative • http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/healthyhomes.htm