Minority children are at heightened risk of health problems due to poor housing environments, according to a recent report.

The National Organization of African Americans in Housing, a network of housing advocates, in February released a report on environmental health hazards in the nation's low-income housing. Released through the organization's Healthy Homes Initiative, the report focuses on three hazards: lead, mold and pests.

According to the report, because many minority children often live in housing built before the 1950s, they are at unique risk of impaired growth, respiratory infection, chronic disease and even death. Poor housing can also contribute to burdensome medical bills due to care for asthma, allergies and other respiratory conditions that can be linked to substandard housing.

Even though awareness about lead poisoning has been advancing in the United States, the report noted that "lead-based paint hazards still pose a major threat to millions of young children every day" and that minority children are disproportionately affected by that threat. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, low-income children are eight times more likely to incur lead poisoning than children in higher-income families.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has implemented actions to reduce lead hazards in public and assisted housing programs, although millions of housing properties still contain lead hazards, the report noted. The report recommended that lead-poisoning prevention be addressed at local levels and that strategies be shaped to fit each community's unique needs. The report also called for improving the rates of children who are screened for elevated blood lead levels.

In regard to health hazards from mold, mildew and fungi contamination, the report acknowledged that they are hard to quantify. Nevertheless, there are conditions such as sick-building syndrome and building-related illness that negatively affect individuals through unbalanced indoor climate systems, the report said. For example, recirculated air from ventilation systems combined with water can lead to mold growth.

Indoor fungi contamination can lead to allergies, infection, irritation and toxicity, and infants and people with compromised immune systems are at heightened risk. For residents of subsidized housing, who do have control over building repairs, mold and fungi growth could become a threat if property managers do not properly eliminate water and moisture problems, according to the report.

Children living in poor housing and urban settings also face larger pest problems from insects and rodents. Among the factors that have contributed to increasing pests in such settings are aging housing and a lack of funding for pest-prevention programs, pest elimination and sanitation regulation and enforcement.

Because there has been direct links between pest elimination and the lessening of allergies, the report suggested that occupants and property managers become more educated on how pest management can improve health.

"Although poor housing and neighborhood conditions alone do not fully explain the high incidence of environmental health problems experienced by low-income and minority households, the long-term disinvestment and physical neglect of predominantly low-income and minority areas in cities represent major obstacles to transforming these toxic environments," the report stated.

For more information or a copy of the "Report on Environmental Health Hazards in the Nation's Low Income Housing Stock," visit <www.noaah.org> or call (202) 544-1058.
 

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