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While all people deserve to live in a safe and healthy home, not everyone has that opportunity. Some home environments can cause significant illness, injury, or death to those who live there. Many household hazards, such as fall risks, mold, radon, pests, or lead, are preventable. By working with homeowners and renters, trained public health staff with Cook County Public Health and Human Services can now offer evidence-based healthy homes assessments to identify housing-based health threats, as well as education and resources to help correct the identified hazards.
Eight Principles of Healthy Homes
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines the following eight healthy homes principles:
Keep it Dry: Prevent water from entering your home through leaks in roofing systems, rainwater from entering due to improper drainage, and leak-free plumbing.
Keep it Clean: Control sources of dust and contaminants by creating smooth and cleanable surfaces, reducing clutter, and using effective wet-cleaning methods.
Keep it Safe: Store poisons, chemicals, medications, and firearms out of reach of children. Secure loose rugs and keep children’s play areas free from hard or sharp surfaces. Install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and keep fire extinguishers on hand.
Keep it Well-Ventilated: Ventilate bathrooms and kitchens and use whole house ventilation to supply fresh air to reduce the concentration of contaminants in the home.
Keep it Pest-Free: All pests look for food, water, and shelter. Seal cracks and openings throughout the home and store food in pest-resistant containers.
Keep it Contaminant-Free: Reduce lead-related hazards in pre-1978 homes by fixing deteriorated paint and keeping floors and window are clean using wet-cleaning approach. Test your home for radon, a naturally occurring dangerous gas that enters homes through soil, crawlspaces, and foundation cracks.
Keep your home Maintained: Inspect, clean, and repair your home routinely. Take care of minor repairs and problems before they become large repairs.
Thermally Controlled: Houses that do not maintain adequate temperatures may place the safety of residents at increased risk from exposure to extreme cold or heat.
What is a Healthy Homes Assessment?
The Healthy Homes Assessment process involves a trained assessor reviewing each room in your home, including the basement, garage, and outdoor areas for potential hazards. If there are rooms you do not want to be included in the assessment, please let us know right away.
Some of the things we will be looking for include tripping and electrical hazards, mold and moisture, smoke and CO alarms, fire extinguishers, minor structural defects, presence of pests, safe storage of medications/ chemicals/weapons, proper lighting, proper ventilation of combustion appliances and exhaust fans.
A copy of the Healthy Homes Assessment is available upon request if you would like to follow along during the assessment. Available testing services include:
Radon
Lead
Well water (there may be a cost associated with this test)
Additional Assessments Available upon request:
•Child-proofing Checklist
•Hoarding Questionnaire
•Aging at Home Checklist
•Firewise referral
What happens after the Healthy Homes assessment?
Within seven days of the assessment, we will contact you to schedule a follow-up visit to review the assessment report and recommendations with you.
Upon review of the assessment, you will be provided additional information and resources to work on correcting the hazards discovered. We will work with you to identify the hazards you determine to be the most important. If you meet the income qualifications, we will provide mitigation dollars to correct some of the hazards you have determined to be the most important.
We will follow up with you six months after the assessment to check on progress with addressing the identified hazards and answer any additional questions you may have.
For more information, please contact Andrea Orest, Public Health Educator at andrea.orest@co.cook. mn.us or 218-220-5536.
Learn more about Health Homes Program at the October 18 PHHS Board Meeting. The meeting is available to stream live on the Cook County website at www.cookcountyphhs.org. Contact us via email at PHHS@co.cook.mn.us or follow us on Facebook@ CookCountyPHHS or on Instagram @Cook_County_PHHS to learn more about our work in supporting the health, safety and wellbeing of Cook County.
County Connections is a column on timely topics and service information from your Cook County government. Cook County – Supporting Community Through Quality Public Service.
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