Introduction Flashcards
Open ended vs closed ended questions, code variations, where healthy homes start, and routes of exposure
8 Principles of a Healthy Home
Keep It: Clean, Safe, Dry, Ventilated, Pest-Free, Comfortable, Contaminant-Free, Maintained
American Housing Survey
Implemented in 1974. A nation-wide survey of the quality of housing stock to analyze housing characteristics on a large scale, and to record what Americans were paying for housing and related services. Conducted telephonically. Metropolitan surveys are conducted every few years.
Zoning Codes
Defines what kind of buildings can go into a community.
Building Codes
Defines how new buildings must be built and/or rebuilt and renovated.
Housing Codes
Defines how buildings must be maintained.
International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC)
Represents a comprehensive set of regulations for existing buildings that was consistent with the existing model property maintenance codes. The code must 1. Adequately protect public health, safety, and welfare; 2. Not unnecessarily increase construction costs; 3. Not restrict the use of new materials, productions or methods of construction; and 4. Not give preferential treatment to particular types or classes of materials, products or methods of construction. The IPMC is updated every three years.
National Healthy Housing Standard
The standard’s provisions aim to fill gaps where there are no property maintenance policies, and to complement the IPMC and other federal, state, and local policies regarding the upkeep of existing homes. Its recommendations are meant to serve as a set of minimum performance housing standards.
International Code Council (ICC)
The ICC develops and manages the International Property Maintenance Code (IPMC) which provides communities with a framework of minimum standards for planning, construction, and maintenance of structures.
Chronic Health Conditions
A condition that is persistent or episodic over a period of time, sometimes defined simply as lasting more than three months. Genetics and inheritance pay and important role in chronic conditions. Short- and long-term exposures to the things in our environment also play an essential role in long-term health.
Epidemiological Triangle of Disease (EToD)
A tool used by public health professionals use to analyze the relationship between a human and the things in the world they are exposed to that can lead to poor health. 1. Host; 2. Agent; 3. Environment
EToD - Host
The person, or the who, a disease imbeds itself into.
EToD - Agent
The source, or the what that can bring about changes in a person’s health. It can be biological, chemical, or physical.
EToD - Environement
The where, or simply the location the agent is found when the host is exposed, or they experience the health impact.
EToD - Transport Mechanism
How people are exposed to the agents that cause health problems. Any mechanism, direct or indirect, by which the agent is spread from the environment to the host. Can be described as a vector or fomite.
EToD - Vector
Transport Mechanism. A vector is a living thing that can carry the disease to a human host. Insects, for example, are carriers of diseases like malaria. They can transport it from one human to another through their bites.
EToD - Fomite
Transport Mechanism. A fomite is any non-living or inanimate object that transports the agent to the host. For example, the dust from paint (environment) might be described as a fomite for exposing a child (host) to lead (agent).
Inhalation
A route of exposure. Foreign substances in the air can be inhaled and absorbed into the blood. Cilia in the bronchi of the lungs can trap contaminants and moves them into the throat to be swallowed or coughed up. With chemicals in tobacco smoke, the cilia become paralyzed causing this defense mechanism to fail allowing the contaminants to go deeper into the lungs.
Ingestion
A route of exposure. How we eat and drink. Ingestion is a common route for lead dust pesticides, and other chemical residues.
Absorption
A route of exposure. When a hazard comes in contact with a surface on our bodies primarily through skin contact but can also be through the eyes and inside the ears. The skin has a protection mechanism that reduce the impact of exposure with three layers of skin.
Injection
A route of exposure. Less common, but most important route. When a foreign penetrates the skin surface. Insect bites, stings, wood splinters, and accidents with tools are common injection injuries. Gloves and protective clothing are ways to avoid injections.
Built-In Mechanisms
Cilia in the lungs trap contaminants (inhalation). Skins regenerates (absorption).
Vulnerable Populations to Exposure
Young Children: Children spend 80-90% of their time indoors increasing their exposure to home hazards.
Older Adults: They have smaller airways and a smaller lung capacity, making them more vulnerable to poor indoor air quality and chronic dampness. They have a harder time retaining calcium leading to easier bone breaks. They are also more susceptible to falls.
Health Descriptions - Signs
Things that can be measured, either by a person or by someone else like their health provider. Signs can also be things directly observed.
Health Descriptions - Symptoms
Descriptions of a health condition a person reports they are experiencing. They are reported experiences that can’t really be measured.
Closed-Ended Questions Relating to Home Hazards
Only allows for a yes or no answer, or short, single-word replies.
Open-Ended Questions Relating to Home Hazards
Intended to elicit more conversation, derails, and insights that will better illuminate an issue or concern.
Social Determinants of Health (SDoT)
Conditions in the environment in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, workshop, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risk. Conditions in these various environments and settings have been referred to as “place”.
Health Disparities
A particular type of health difference that is closely linked with economic, social, or environmental disadvantage. Health disparities adversely affect groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social or economic obstacles to health based on their racial or ethnic group, religion, socioeconomic-status, gender, age or mental health; cognitive, sensory or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion.
House-as-a-System
The field of building science involves the study of how the components of the system interact. It is understanding, and even predicting, the impact of heat energy, water and dampness, airborne particles and chemicals, air pressure, and the different physical forces, all on the indoor environmental conditions of building. The interplay between these factors and the role of human occupancy, combined with how well the house-as-a-system manages these factors ultimately determines what can make a home healthy or unhealthy.
