States Seek to Ensure Healthy Homes
Current federal regulations regarding the environmental safety of homes is currently severely limited, leaving state and local governments the responsibility of protecting residents from potentially unsafe elements to which they may be exposed in their own homes. Funded by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) have partnered to identify and analyze current state laws in this regard. According to HUD, “The Healthy Homes program will support research necessary to clarify and strengthen existing evidence for specific changes to the building or property maintenance codes, and facilitate the adoption of effective health protective practices into existing codes."
As part of this effort, NCHH and NCSL has created a webpage to provide users with links to the provisions of state codes that are directly related to healthy homes. Consumers, activists and medical professionals can all benefit from becoming familiar with their location’s codes, and work to change them when they perceive a health threat. The information is available at healthyhomestraining.org/codes/state.htm. For more information on the subject of healthy homes, visit www.nchh.org.