Housing and Health Science

• • NOTOC**

Healthy Homes and Indoor Air Quality

Healthy homes are a major public health priority because people spend much of their time indoors, where housing conditions can affect breathing, safety, comfort, childhood development, aging, and long-term wellbeing. The uploaded material highlights a broad set of government, public health, research, and building-science sources focused on reducing hazards such as lead, mold, pests, radon, carbon monoxide, combustion pollutants, volatile organic compounds, wildfire smoke, overcrowding, heat, cold, and injury risks.

Healthy Homes as Public Health Infrastructure

Healthy homes programs treat housing as more than shelter. They focus on keeping homes dry, clean, safe, ventilated, pest-free, contaminant-free, maintained, and thermally comfortable. Federal and public health agencies connect poor housing quality with asthma, respiratory illness, lead poisoning, injuries, infectious disease risk, and health inequities.

HUD’s Healthy Homes programs and grant opportunities support communities working to reduce lead hazards, mold, carbon monoxide, radon, fire risks, asthma triggers, and other home-based dangers. These efforts are especially important for children, older adults, low-income households, and residents of older or poorly maintained housing.

Indoor Air Quality and Common Pollutants

Indoor air quality is shaped by pollutant sources, ventilation, filtration, moisture, building materials, occupant behavior, and outdoor air entering the home. Major indoor pollutants include combustion byproducts, radon, volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, fine particles, mold, dust, lead dust, secondhand smoke, and outdoor pollution such as wildfire smoke.

EPA guidance emphasizes source control, ventilation, filtration, moisture control, and awareness of pollutant sources. Portable air cleaners and upgraded HVAC filtration can reduce some particle exposures, but they work best when combined with source reduction and proper ventilation.

Lead, Mold, Radon, and Carbon Monoxide

Lead remains a serious hazard in older housing, especially from lead-based paint, dust, soil, plumbing, and unsafe renovation work. EPA, HUD, and CDC resources emphasize lead-safe work practices, certified renovation and abatement firms, disclosure rules, childhood blood lead testing, and prevention before exposure occurs.

Mold and moisture are also central healthy-housing issues. Mold prevention depends on controlling water intrusion, humidity, leaks, condensation, drainage, and ventilation. Damp and moldy homes are linked to asthma symptoms, allergies, respiratory irritation, and other health problems, especially for children and sensitive occupants.

Radon is another major indoor air concern because it can enter homes from the ground and accumulate indoors. Testing and mitigation are key prevention strategies. Carbon monoxide risks come from combustion appliances, fireplaces, heaters, vehicles, and poor venting, making detectors, maintenance, and combustion safety essential.

Energy Efficiency, Weatherization, and Ventilation

Energy efficiency and healthy housing are closely connected. Weatherization can lower utility bills, improve comfort, and make homes warmer and drier, but tighter buildings also need planned ventilation to avoid trapping pollutants indoors. Building-science resources emphasize whole-house ventilation, moisture management, combustion safety, air sealing, and radon-resistant construction.

Research on energy-efficient homes suggests that health benefits can occur when upgrades reduce dampness, cold indoor temperatures, and respiratory risks. However, energy retrofits should include indoor air quality protections, especially in homes with combustion appliances, high humidity, radon risk, or inadequate ventilation.

Children, Older Adults, and Vulnerable Residents

Children are especially vulnerable to poor indoor environments because of developing lungs, higher exposure relative to body size, and time spent at home or school. The material connects children’s health to lead exposure, mold, dampness, pests, dust mites, overcrowding, asthma triggers, and poor ventilation.

Older adults and people with disabilities may face additional risks from poor lighting, heat, cold, poor accessibility, falls, and indoor air problems. Healthy housing design and home modification programs can support safer aging in place, reduce injury risks, and improve independence.

Schools, Workplaces, and Healthy Buildings

The healthy buildings movement extends indoor air quality beyond homes to schools, offices, public buildings, and hybrid work environments. Schools need ventilation, filtration, moisture control, safe cleaning practices, asthma trigger reduction, and maintenance systems that protect students and staff.

Building standards and certification systems such as WELL, Fitwel, LEED, Enterprise Green Communities, ASHRAE standards, and national healthy housing models increasingly connect building performance with occupant health. These frameworks address air quality, materials, moisture, thermal comfort, lighting, sound, safety, and wellbeing.

Climate Change and Indoor Environments

Climate change is making indoor environmental quality more important. Wildfire smoke, flooding, extreme heat, storms, dampness, and power outages can all affect indoor health. Guidance on clean rooms during wildfire smoke, flood cleanup, mold prevention, heat protection, and resilient building design shows how healthy homes are also climate-adaptation tools.

As homes become more airtight for energy conservation, ventilation and filtration become even more important. Healthy retrofits must balance energy savings with moisture control, pollutant reduction, and protection from outdoor climate-related hazards.

Equity and Housing Policy

Healthy housing is also an equity issue. Low-income families, renters, children, older adults, and residents of older housing often face higher exposure to lead, mold, pests, crowding, unsafe heating, and poor maintenance. Public funding, inspections, grants, weatherization, lead hazard control, asthma interventions, and affordable housing standards can reduce these disparities.

The material emphasizes that housing improvements can produce public health benefits when they target the homes and communities with the greatest hazards. Effective programs combine repairs, education, code enforcement, financing, energy upgrades, and health-based building standards.

Conclusion

Healthy homes and indoor air quality are central to disease prevention, climate resilience, childhood health, aging, and environmental justice. The best strategies combine source control, ventilation, filtration, moisture management, lead hazard reduction, combustion safety, radon testing, pest prevention, weatherization, and strong housing standards. By treating housing as public health infrastructure, communities can reduce preventable illness, improve comfort, lower energy burdens, and create safer places to live, learn, work, and age.

• • TOC**

Healthy Homes Program

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2026

HUD’s Healthy Homes program focuses on reducing home hazards such as lead, mold, pests, radon, carbon monoxide, injury risks, and climate-related threats so families can live in safer and healthier housing.

Indoor Air Quality

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains how source control, ventilation, filtration, and pollutant awareness can reduce indoor exposures in homes, schools, workplaces, and other buildings.

Indoor Air Quality Report on the Environment

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA summarizes major indoor air pollutants, including combustion byproducts, radon, volatile organic compounds, mold, dust, and outdoor pollutants that enter buildings.

Introduction to Indoor Air Quality

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

This EPA guide defines indoor air quality and explains why controlling common pollutants inside buildings is important for occupant health, comfort, and disease prevention.

Healthy Efficient Homes Research and Standards

| U.S. Department of Energy | DOE | 2026

DOE describes research on smart ventilation, targeted pollutant control, and ways to combine energy efficiency with healthier indoor air in residential buildings.

Enhancing Health With Indoor Air

| U.S. General Services Administration | GSA | 2026

GSA explains how humidity, ventilation, filtration, and building operation affect occupant health, mold risk, airborne particles, comfort, and productivity.

EPA Lead-Based Paint Program Frequent Questions

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA answers common questions about lead-based paint testing, disclosure, renovation rules, certified inspectors, and lead-safe work practices for older housing.

HUD Funding Opportunities for Healthy Homes

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2026

HUD lists current funding opportunities for lead hazard reduction, healthy homes production, housing hazard mitigation, and research aimed at safer housing.

Indoor Air Quality Is the Next Public Health Frontier

| Stockholm Environment Institute | SEI | 2026

This article argues that energy retrofits should pair airtight construction with controlled ventilation so buildings save energy without trapping pollutants indoors.

What If Buildings Could Make Us Healthier

| Passive House Accelerator | Passive House Accelerator | 2026

This article explains how better ventilation, moisture control, thermal comfort, and low-pollution materials can turn housing into a tool for public health.

EPBD 2026 and Indoor Air Quality

| Marquis Intelligence Team | Marquis Intelligence | 2026

This article discusses how Europe’s building performance rules are increasingly linking energy efficiency with measurable indoor environmental quality.

Integrating Health and Indoor Air Quality Into European Building Policy

| G. K. Lagoudas et al. | Building and Environment | 2026

This research argues that building energy policy should include health-based indoor air quality targets, especially as homes become more airtight and efficient.

Effect of Energy-Efficient Homes on Residents’ Health

| V. P. Roberdel et al. | The Lancet Public Health | 2026

This study links energy-efficiency improvements with measurable health benefits, including reduced respiratory medication use, likely connected to warmer, drier homes.

Indoor Environmental Quality in the Era of Hybrid Work

| M. Kong et al. | Building Research & Information | 2026

This research reviews how indoor air quality, lighting, acoustics, thermal comfort, and home workspaces affect health and productivity in hybrid work.

Indoor Air Pollution and Children’s Health

| Health Policy Watch | Health Policy Watch | 2026

This article highlights children’s vulnerability to indoor air pollution and calls for stronger protections in buildings where children live and learn.

Healthy Homes Production Grant Program

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2026

HUD explains grant programs that help communities reduce asthma triggers, radon, carbon monoxide, injury hazards, and other housing-related health risks.

Lead Hazard Reduction Capacity Building Grant Program

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2026

HUD identifies funding for communities building local capacity to inspect, control, and prevent lead hazards in older housing.

Housing-Related Hazards and Lead-Based Paint Capital Fund

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2026

This HUD funding opportunity supports public housing authorities addressing mold, carbon monoxide, radon, fire safety, and lead-based paint hazards.

Lead-Safe and Healthy Homes Financing Demonstration

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2026

HUD’s financing demonstration explores ways to expand resources for lead hazard control and broader healthy homes improvements.

Healthy Buildings Conference and Expo

| Alliance for Sustainable Building Products | ASBP | 2026

This conference program highlights healthy materials, indoor air quality research, PFAS in construction products, and building standards that support occupant wellbeing.

Indoor Environmental Quality to Ensure Health and Wellbeing

| M. Hernandez-Martin et al. | Frontiers in Built Environment | 2025

This review examines how indoor environmental quality affects health, wellbeing, aging, cognition, and residential building performance.

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation in Newly Built Homes

| PublicPolicy.ie | PublicPolicy.ie | 2025

This article explains how newer energy-efficient homes can still face indoor air quality risks if ventilation, filtration, and overheating prevention are inadequate.

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation in Newly Built Homes Report

| D. Sood et al. | ALIVE Project | 2025

This report studies natural ventilation, energy efficiency, overheating, PM2.5, carbon dioxide, and pollutants in newly built homes.

Crowded Housing, Indoor Environment and Children’s Health

| E. Eiffener et al. | BMJ Open | 2025

This study finds that crowded housing is associated with worse indoor living conditions and poorer general health among children up to age 12.

Acceptable Indoor Environmental Quality and Energy Efficiency

| BUILD UP European Portal | European Commission BUILD UP | 2025

This article explains how ventilation, filtration, low-emitting materials, CO2 monitoring, and PM2.5 control can align energy efficiency with healthy indoor environments.

Guidance on Improving Indoor Air Quality in Office Buildings

| Health Canada | Government of Canada | 2025

Health Canada provides practical recommendations for evaluating, improving, and maintaining indoor air quality through source control, ventilation, maintenance, and remediation.

Energy, Weatherization and Indoor Air Quality

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2025

EPA explains that weatherization can improve comfort and efficiency but should include indoor air quality protections to avoid trapping pollutants.

Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes

| National Low Income Housing Coalition | NLIHC | 2025

This policy brief describes lead paint risks, housing quality disparities, and the importance of federal healthy homes programs for low-income families.

Lead Hazard Reduction Grant Program

| Navigate Housing | Navigate Housing | 2025

This article explains how HUD lead hazard grants help local governments reduce lead-based paint dangers in homes with young children.

Clean Air, Healthy Childhoods

| Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health | RCPCH | 2025

This report connects children’s respiratory health to indoor air quality, overcrowding, damp homes, mold, poor ventilation, and unsafe housing conditions.

Healthy Building Standards and Green Building Rating Systems

| S. S. B. B. O. Assoumou | Wageningen University & Research | 2025

This research reviews how healthy building standards are being incorporated into green building rating systems, especially through indoor environmental quality measures.

Indoor Environmental Quality and Aging Residents

| M. Hernandez-Martin et al. | Frontiers in Built Environment | 2025

This study emphasizes that older adults may experience indoor air, heat, noise, and lighting conditions differently, making healthy housing design important for aging populations.

CO2 and PM2.5 as Indoor Air Quality Indicators

| BUILD UP European Portal | European Commission BUILD UP | 2025

This article describes carbon dioxide as a useful ventilation indicator and PM2.5 as a key measure of particle exposure in residential buildings.

Ventilation in Energy-Efficient Homes

| PublicPolicy.ie | PublicPolicy.ie | 2025

This article warns that efficient homes relying only on natural ventilation may have elevated PM2.5, carbon dioxide, and volatile organic compounds.

Healthy Homes and Children’s Environmental Health

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2024

EPA meeting minutes describe work on indoor PM2.5, extreme heat, children’s environmental health, lead exposure, and indoor air strategies.

HUD Announces More Than $420 Million to Eliminate Lead Exposure in Homes

| SAHMA | SAHMA | 2024

This article reports HUD funding aimed at lead hazard removal, housing hazard prevention, healthy homes research, and safer homes for children.

Towards Better Indoor Air Quality in the European Residential Context

| European Public Health Alliance | EPHA | 2024

This report reviews residential indoor air pollutants, ventilation, dampness, mold, fuel poverty, health impacts, and policy options for healthier homes.

HUD FY 2025 Budget in Brief Healthy Homes Funding

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2024

HUD’s budget document describes funding for lead hazard control, healthy homes programs, public housing safety, energy efficiency, and climate resilience.

HUD Annual Performance Plan and Healthy Housing

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2024

HUD reports progress on reducing lead and other home health hazards through grants, inspections, safety programs, and healthy housing investments.

Public Housing Health Hazards

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2024

HUD estimates the cost of addressing health hazards such as mold, carbon monoxide, radon, fire risks, and lead-based paint in public housing.

EPA Indoor Air Quality and Extreme Heat Webinar

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2024

EPA describes work connecting extreme heat, indoor air quality, children’s health, and practical community adaptation strategies.

EPA Indoor PM2.5 and Practical Interventions

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2024

EPA meeting notes highlight indoor fine particle exposure and interventions that can reduce PM2.5 inside buildings.

EPA Lead on Indoor Air and Children’s Health

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2024

EPA describes a webinar focused on how lead can affect indoor environments and children’s health.

Energy Efficiency and Healthy Housing in HUD Programs

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2024

HUD’s budget summary connects energy efficiency, resilience, climate mitigation, and home hazard reduction in assisted and financed housing.

The Impact of Poor Housing and Indoor Air Quality on Respiratory Health in Children

| K. A. Holden et al. | Breathe | 2023

This review finds that dampness, mold, cold homes, pests, and indoor pollutants are linked to poorer respiratory health in children and young people.

Poor Housing and Child Respiratory Health

| K. A. Holden et al. | University of Liverpool Repository | 2023

This article summarizes evidence that housing quality and indoor air quality are major determinants of respiratory symptoms and illness in children.

Healthy Building Policies Around the World

| International WELL Building Institute | IWBI | 2023

This article describes how healthy building policies are shaping standards for indoor air, comfort, materials, lighting, and wellbeing.

EPA Strategic Plan and Indoor Air Quality

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2022

EPA’s strategic plan identifies indoor air quality, ventilation, radon reduction, asthma triggers, and school and home environments as public health priorities.

WHO Housing and Health Guidelines

| World Health Organization | WHO | 2018

WHO reviews evidence on crowding, cold housing, heat, injury hazards, accessibility, dampness, mold, and housing interventions that affect health.

WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality Dampness and Mould

| World Health Organization | WHO | 2009

WHO concludes that dampness and mold are associated with respiratory symptoms, asthma, allergies, and other health risks.

WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality Selected Pollutants

| World Health Organization | WHO | 2010

WHO provides health-based guidance for indoor pollutants including benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, naphthalene, nitrogen dioxide, radon, and trichloroethylene.

WHO Indoor Air Quality Household Fuel Combustion

| World Health Organization | WHO | 2014

WHO reviews health risks from household combustion and explains why cleaner fuels, ventilation, and safer stoves are essential for healthy homes.

National Academies Building Ventilation Weatherization and Energy Use

| National Academies | National Academies Press | 2011

This chapter explains how weatherization, ventilation rates, building materials, and energy use affect indoor pollutants and occupant health.

Impacts of Weatherization on Indoor Air Quality

| S. Pigg et al. | Indoor Air | 2018

This field study found that weatherization can change indoor contaminant levels, including radon, humidity, and carbon monoxide, showing the need for IAQ protections.

Studying the Optimal Ventilation for Environmental Indoor Air Quality

| National Center for Healthy Housing | NCHH | 2018

This project studies how green affordable housing and proper ventilation can improve indoor air quality and benefit families and communities.

Damp Homes and Respiratory Infections

| Health Research Council of New Zealand | HRC | 2019

This article reports research linking damp and moldy homes to preventable hospital admissions for young children with acute respiratory infections.

Housing Health and the Wellbeing of Children

| New Zealand Ministry of Social Development | MSD | 2021

This evidence review connects crowding, dampness, mold, cold housing, housing insecurity, and poor housing quality to children’s health outcomes.

Calls for Removing All Lead Paint From U.S. Housing

| D. Ryan | Environmental Health Perspectives | 2013

This article discusses the policy debate over lead paint removal, hazard control, and prevention of childhood lead exposure in older housing.

Climate Change and Indoor Air Quality

| Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies | Harvard JCHS | 2013

This article explains how energy conservation and tighter buildings increased attention to indoor pollutants, ventilation, and healthy retrofit design.

Healthy Buildings Impact

| Harvard Healthy Buildings Program | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health | 2023

Harvard’s Healthy Buildings program argues for modern building standards that make cleaner indoor air a norm across homes, schools, and workplaces.

Harvard Healthy Buildings Program

| Harvard Healthy Buildings Program | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health | 2023

This program promotes research and tools on ventilation, filtration, indoor air quality, building operations, and health-centered building design.

EPA Mold Resources

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA provides guidance on mold prevention, cleanup, moisture control, health effects, and when professional remediation may be needed.

A Brief Guide to Mold Moisture and Your Home

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains that controlling moisture is the key to preventing mold growth and protecting indoor air quality in homes.

Mold Cleanup in Your Home

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA describes safe steps for cleaning mold, fixing water problems, protecting occupants, and deciding when to seek professional help.

Mold and Health

| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2026

CDC explains how mold exposure can trigger allergies, asthma symptoms, respiratory irritation, and other problems for sensitive occupants.

Prevent Mold After a Disaster

| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2026

CDC provides guidance for drying buildings, removing wet materials, protecting workers, and preventing mold after flooding or storm damage.

Mold Clean Up Guidelines

| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2026

CDC explains how to clean mold safely, use protective equipment, and reduce exposure during remediation.

Moisture Control Guidance for Building Design Construction and Maintenance

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains how building design, maintenance, drainage, ventilation, and materials affect moisture control and mold prevention.

Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA’s school IAQ program offers tools for ventilation, moisture control, asthma trigger reduction, maintenance, and healthier learning environments.

Creating Healthy Indoor Air Quality in Schools

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains how schools can manage ventilation, cleaning, moisture, chemicals, and maintenance to protect students and staff.

Ventilation and Coronavirus in Schools

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA provides ventilation and filtration guidance that also supports broader indoor air quality improvements beyond infectious disease control.

EPA Guide to Air Cleaners in the Home

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains how portable air cleaners and HVAC filtration can reduce some indoor particle exposures when used correctly.

Residential Air Cleaners Technical Summary

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA reviews filtration, clean air delivery rates, particles, gases, ozone concerns, and the limits of air cleaning technologies.

Care for Your Air

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA’s home guide explains practical actions for reducing indoor air pollution through source control, ventilation, moisture control, and filtration.

The Inside Story A Guide to Indoor Air Quality

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA’s guide explains sources of indoor pollutants, health effects, ventilation, household chemicals, combustion appliances, lead dust, and moisture problems.

Asthma Triggers Gain Control

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains common home asthma triggers, including mold, pests, dust mites, smoke, pets, and combustion sources.

EPA Asthma Home Environment Checklist

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA provides a checklist for identifying home conditions that can worsen asthma, including moisture, mold, pests, smoke, and poor ventilation.

Radon

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains radon risks, home testing, mitigation, and why this naturally occurring radioactive gas is a major indoor air concern.

A Citizen’s Guide to Radon

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA provides practical guidance on testing homes for radon and reducing elevated radon levels through mitigation.

Consumer’s Guide to Radon Reduction

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains how certified contractors reduce radon in homes and how homeowners can evaluate mitigation systems.

Carbon Monoxide’s Impact on Indoor Air Quality

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA describes carbon monoxide sources, symptoms, prevention, detectors, and ventilation concerns in homes.

Combustion Pollutants in Your Home

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains how gas stoves, heaters, fireplaces, and other combustion appliances can release pollutants indoors.

Volatile Organic Compounds’ Impact on Indoor Air Quality

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains sources and health concerns related to VOCs from paints, cleaners, building materials, furnishings, and consumer products.

Formaldehyde’s Impact on Indoor Air Quality

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains formaldehyde sources in pressed wood products, furnishings, and building materials, along with exposure reduction strategies.

Particulate Matter and Indoor Air

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains how indoor particles come from smoking, cooking, combustion, dust, outdoor pollution, and wildfire smoke infiltration.

Wildfires and Indoor Air Quality

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains how wildfire smoke enters homes and how filtration, clean rooms, source control, and ventilation management can reduce exposure.

Create a Clean Room to Protect Indoor Air During a Wildfire

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA gives practical steps for creating a cleaner indoor room using filtration, reduced infiltration, and careful HVAC operation during smoke events.

Flood Cleanup and Indoor Air Quality

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains how flood cleanup affects indoor air quality and why drying, safe debris removal, and mold prevention are essential after water damage.

Lead

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA’s lead portal provides information on lead sources, health risks, lead paint, renovation rules, drinking water, soil, and prevention.

Protect Your Family From Sources of Lead

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains how families can reduce lead exposure from paint, dust, soil, water, consumer products, and renovation activities.

Lead-Based Paint Program

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains federal rules for lead-based paint in older housing and child-occupied facilities.

Renovation Repair and Painting Program

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA’s RRP program requires lead-safe practices for renovation, repair, and painting work in many pre-1978 homes and child-occupied buildings.

Lead-Safe Certified Guide to Renovate Right

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA’s Renovate Right guide explains lead-safe work practices and disclosure requirements for work in older housing.

Locate Certified Lead Renovation and Abatement Firms

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA provides tools for finding certified lead renovation, dust sampling, and abatement firms for safer work in older homes.

HUD Lead-Based Paint Guidelines

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2026

HUD’s lead-based paint guidelines help inspectors, property owners, landlords, and childcare operators identify and control lead hazards.

HUD Lead-Based Paint Program

| HUD Exchange | HUD | 2026

HUD Exchange provides lead-based paint training resources, evaluation guidance, and program materials for housing professionals.

Explore Housing With Lead Risk in the United States

| America’s Health Rankings | United Health Foundation | 2025

This data page tracks housing lead risk and highlights disparities affecting children, low-income households, and residents of older housing.

CDC Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention

| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2026

CDC explains how lead exposure harms children and provides prevention guidance for families, clinicians, and public health agencies.

About Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention

| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2026

CDC summarizes lead exposure sources, children’s vulnerability, health effects, and the importance of primary prevention.

Testing for Lead Poisoning in Children

| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2026

CDC explains blood lead testing, follow-up, and why identifying exposure early is important for children living in older or high-risk housing.

Lead in Paint

| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2026

CDC explains how lead-based paint and lead dust from older homes remain major sources of childhood lead exposure.

Lead in Soil

| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2026

CDC explains how exterior lead paint, industrial contamination, and historic leaded gasoline can leave lead in soil around homes.

Lead in Drinking Water

| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2026

CDC explains how plumbing and service lines can contribute to lead exposure and how households can reduce risk.

Healthy Housing Reference Manual

| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC | 2026

CDC’s manual reviews housing conditions that affect health, including ventilation, moisture, pests, lead, sanitation, injury hazards, and crowding.

Housing as a Social Determinant of Health

| Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion | Healthy People 2030 | 2026

Healthy People summarizes how housing instability, poor housing quality, crowding, and unaffordable housing affect health outcomes.

Housing Quality and Health

| County Health Rankings & Roadmaps | University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute | 2026

This evidence summary reviews housing quality improvements such as lead remediation, mold removal, weatherization, and repairs that can improve health.

Home-Based Multi-Trigger Multicomponent Environmental Interventions

| Community Preventive Services Task Force | The Community Guide | 2026

The Community Guide finds that home interventions reducing asthma triggers can improve asthma outcomes for children and adolescents.

Healthy Homes and Asthma

| National Center for Healthy Housing | NCHH | 2026

NCHH explains how mold, pests, moisture, dust, smoke, and poor housing conditions contribute to asthma and how home interventions can help.

National Healthy Housing Standard

| National Center for Healthy Housing | NCHH | 2026

The National Healthy Housing Standard provides a model code for safe, dry, clean, ventilated, pest-free, contaminant-free, and maintained housing.

Healthy Housing Principles

| National Center for Healthy Housing | NCHH | 2026

NCHH summarizes core healthy housing principles, including keeping homes dry, clean, safe, ventilated, pest-free, contaminant-free, maintained, and thermally controlled.

Integrated Pest Management in Housing

| National Center for Healthy Housing | NCHH | 2026

NCHH explains how integrated pest management can reduce asthma triggers while avoiding unnecessary pesticide exposure in homes.

Healthy Housing Fact Sheets

| National Center for Healthy Housing | NCHH | 2026

NCHH provides fact sheets on lead, mold, radon, carbon monoxide, pests, moisture, and other housing-related health hazards.

Green and Healthy Homes Initiative

| Green & Healthy Homes Initiative | GHHI | 2026

GHHI works to integrate lead hazard control, energy efficiency, asthma trigger reduction, injury prevention, and healthy housing repairs.

Energy Efficiency and Health Benefits

| Green & Healthy Homes Initiative | GHHI | 2026

GHHI explains how coordinated housing interventions can reduce health risks while improving comfort, affordability, and energy performance.

Weatherization Assistance Program

| U.S. Department of Energy | DOE | 2026

DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program helps low-income households improve energy efficiency, reduce utility costs, and improve housing performance.

Weatherization and Health

| U.S. Department of Energy | DOE | 2026

DOE describes health and safety considerations in weatherization, including ventilation, combustion safety, moisture, and indoor air quality.

Building America Solution Center

| Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | DOE Building America | 2026

The Building America Solution Center provides building science guidance on moisture control, ventilation, insulation, airtightness, healthy materials, and durable homes.

Whole-House Ventilation

| Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | DOE Building America | 2026

This guidance explains how whole-house ventilation supports indoor air quality in tighter, more energy-efficient homes.

Moisture Management

| Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | DOE Building America | 2026

This guide explains how drainage, air sealing, insulation, flashing, vapor control, and ventilation reduce moisture damage and mold risk.

Combustion Safety

| Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | DOE Building America | 2026

This guide explains how combustion appliance safety, venting, and testing help prevent carbon monoxide and backdrafting hazards.

Air Sealing

| Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | DOE Building America | 2026

This resource explains air sealing strategies that improve efficiency while requiring ventilation planning to protect indoor air quality.

Radon-Resistant Construction

| Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | DOE Building America | 2026

This guide explains construction practices that reduce radon entry and help protect occupants from long-term exposure.

Ventilation in Multifamily Buildings

| Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | DOE Building America | 2026

This resource explains ventilation strategies for multifamily buildings, where shared systems, pressure imbalances, and pollutant transfer can affect residents.

ASHRAE Standard 62.2 Residential Ventilation

| ASHRAE | ASHRAE | 2026

ASHRAE Standard 62.2 sets ventilation and indoor air quality requirements for residential buildings.

ASHRAE Standard 241 Control of Infectious Aerosols

| ASHRAE | ASHRAE | 2026

ASHRAE Standard 241 provides building guidance for reducing airborne infectious disease transmission through ventilation, filtration, and air cleaning.

ASHRAE Position Document on Indoor Carbon Dioxide

| ASHRAE | ASHRAE | 2022

ASHRAE explains how carbon dioxide can be used as an indicator of ventilation and occupancy, while not representing all indoor air quality risks.

WELL Building Standard

| International WELL Building Institute | IWBI | 2026

WELL provides a building certification framework that addresses air, water, light, thermal comfort, materials, movement, sound, nourishment, and mental wellbeing.

Fitwel Healthy Building Certification

| Center for Active Design | Fitwel | 2026

Fitwel is a building certification system focused on health-promoting design, including indoor environments, physical activity, safety, and community wellbeing.

LEED Indoor Environmental Quality

| U.S. Green Building Council | USGBC | 2026

LEED includes indoor environmental quality credits related to ventilation, low-emitting materials, filtration, moisture control, daylight, and occupant comfort.

Enterprise Green Communities Criteria

| Enterprise Community Partners | Enterprise Green Communities | 2026

Enterprise Green Communities provides healthy affordable housing criteria that include energy efficiency, moisture control, ventilation, materials, and resident health.

Healthy Housing and Affordability

| Enterprise Community Partners | Enterprise Community Partners | 2026

Enterprise connects affordable housing preservation, green building, climate resilience, and resident health through building standards and community investment.

Housing Overcrowding and Health

| World Health Organization | WHO Housing and Health Guidelines | 2018

WHO reviews evidence that household crowding is associated with infectious disease transmission, stress, poor sleep, and several health risks.

Cold Homes and Health

| World Health Organization | WHO Housing and Health Guidelines | 2018

WHO reviews how cold indoor conditions can worsen respiratory and cardiovascular health and how insulation and heating improvements can reduce risk.

Heat in Housing and Health

| World Health Organization | WHO Housing and Health Guidelines | 2018

WHO reviews health risks from high indoor temperatures and the need for housing design that protects residents during heat waves.

Injury Hazards in the Home

| World Health Organization | WHO Housing and Health Guidelines | 2018

WHO reviews home injury risks such as falls, burns, poisoning, and unsafe design, especially for children and older adults.

Accessibility and Housing Health

| World Health Organization | WHO Housing and Health Guidelines | 2018

WHO explains how accessible housing supports health, independence, safety, and social participation for people with disabilities and older adults.

Housing Interventions and Health Equity

| World Health Organization | WHO Housing and Health Guidelines | 2018

WHO emphasizes that housing improvements can reduce health inequities when they target low-income households and communities with the greatest hazards.

Healthy Homes Rating System

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2026

HUD’s Healthy Homes Rating System helps identify and prioritize housing hazards that can harm residents’ health and safety.

Older Adult Home Modification Program

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2026

HUD’s program supports home modifications that help older adults remain safely in their homes and reduce fall and injury risks.

Public Housing Environmental and Health Hazards

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2026

HUD’s public housing capital programs can support repairs addressing building systems, lead hazards, mold, safety issues, and other housing quality needs.

Smoke-Free Public Housing

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2026

HUD’s smoke-free housing policies reduce secondhand smoke exposure, improve indoor air quality, and protect residents in multifamily housing.

Secondhand Smoke and Indoor Air

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA explains how secondhand smoke affects indoor air quality and why smoke-free homes protect children and adults from harmful exposures.

Pests and Pesticides in Homes

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA provides guidance on safer pest control, pesticide risks, and reducing exposure while managing pests in homes.

Dust Mites and Indoor Allergens

| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency | EPA | 2026

EPA identifies dust mites and other household allergens as asthma triggers that can be reduced through moisture control, cleaning, and bedding practices.

Healthy Housing Inspection Manual

| U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | HUD | 2008

HUD’s inspection manual provides practical guidance for identifying housing hazards related to moisture, ventilation, pests, lead, safety, and sanitation.

The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Healthy Homes

| U.S. Surgeon General | National Center for Biotechnology Information | 2009

This report frames healthy housing as a public health priority and calls for prevention of lead, mold, pests, injuries, and poor indoor air.

Housing and Health: Time Again for Public Health Action

| J. Krieger and D. L. Higgins | American Journal of Public Health | 2002

This classic public health article reviews how housing conditions affect asthma, injuries, lead poisoning, infectious disease, mental health, and health equity.