Environmental hazards at home harm millions of children each year. Maintaining a healthy home and living environment is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your family.
Both landlords and their tenants must work together in order to achieve healthy living spaces that avoid causing illness, nuisances or violations.
Basic principles
Keep these in mind when thinking about changes, improvements and general upkeep of your home. Your healthy home should be:
- Dry
- Clean
- Safe
- Ventilated
- Pest-free
- Maintained
- Contaminant-free
Home hazards
Apply these basic principles in your house or apartment to prevent health hazards and make your living space better.
Mold
Mold can make you ill and will worsen asthma symptoms. Avoid mold by eliminating excess moisture and humidity in your home. You can do this by making sure your home is both dry and ventilated properly. Ways to prevent mold.
Home Safety
Avoid injuries caused by falling, drowning, fires, poisoning, suffocation, choking or other accidents. Take care of your home appliances, fire alarms, railings, light fixtures, and stairs. Your home should also be poison-proofed or contaminant-free in general.
Smoke-free
Any amount of secondhand smoke in any amount is harmful for those exposed to it. Second hand smoke also triggers asthma, a serious lung disease from which about 20 million Americans suffer. Find out how to quit smoking.
Another trigger of asthma is smoke from fireplaces.
Lead Poisoning
Can occur when children or adults ingest dust that contains lead. This often happens in older homes that have lead-based paint. Prevent exposure to lead.
Carbon Monoxide
This odorless, colorless gas is not easy to detect and can be fatal. Learn about its sources and how to keep carbon monoxide out of your home.
Formaldehyde
In high concentrations, this pungent-smelling gas can trigger asthma attacks. Formaldehyde also causes eye, nose and throat irritation, as well as skin rash, wheezing and coughing. Learn where you might find formaldehyde in your home.
Radon
Radon is a radioactive, odorless gas that causes cancer. When you breathe air that is contaminated by radon, you are at a high risk for getting lung cancer, especially if you also smoke. Test for radon and fix a radon problem.
Cleaning products
Irritants in commercial cleaning products can trigger asthma. Use green cleaning products to keep your home, your children and the environment safe from harm. Or make cleaners from common household ingredients such as baking soda, liquid soap and hydrogen peroxide.
Pests
Roaches and rodents can trigger asthma and allergies. Bed bugs live in dark, protected areas and feed on human and animal blood. How to pevent bugs and pests.
Help for Your Child’s Asthma
Asthma symptoms in children can be hard to manage. If your child has asthma symptoms you can:
- Talk to your doctor. They will develop an asthma action plan to help control your child’s symptoms. If you don’t have a doctor, call 211 for help finding one.
- Reduce common asthma triggers in your home
- Monitor local air quality and avoid going outdoors when there's smoke or air pollution
Helpful Documents
Healthy Homes Handbook (804.23 KB)
Una Vivienda Sana (823.4 KB)
Rent Right Resource Guide (3.68 MB)
Rent Right Resource Guide - Spanish (3.46 MB)