The Tip Of The Iceberg

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The Tip Of The Iceberg

_ Bartlett_ (http://www.tompaine.com/search/index.cgi?search=

Bartlett & IncludeBlogs=1 & SearchFields=keywords & Template=author)

March 30, 2007

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Bartlett is director of the _Metropolitan Tenants Organization_

(http://www.tenants-rights.org/index.php) . His email address is

_johnb@..._ (mailto:johnb@...)

Outrage has grown—as it should—over the mold, roaches, mice and poor living

conditions found in Walter Army Hospital. According to Rep. Harry

Waxman, D-Calif., the chairman of the House government oversight committee,

" This

may be just the tip of the iceberg. "

Congressman Waxman is correct, perhaps more than he realizes. The scandal of

poor living conditions at the Army hospital is representative of a much

larger problem facing hundreds of thousands of this nation's low- and

moderate-income residents—they are living in substandard housing conditions,

including

mold, roaches and mice, that are causing or triggering serious and preventable

illnesses.

In the same way that everyone expects hospitals to be a " clean and safe "

place, we have that expectation of our homes. Yet housing is often overlooked

as

a hidden determinant to health. Substandard housing in particular can cause

significant public health problems. An increasing body of evidence has shown

strong associations between housing conditions and health.

For example, children are still being poisoned by lead paint—a neurotoxin

that damages a child's developing brain resulting in irreversible brain damage,

lower IQs and juvenile delinquency—almost 30 years after lead in paint was

banned. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 310,000 children in 2002

were poisoned by lead; in 2005, 3,500 children were poisoned in Chicago

alone. In over 90 percent of the cases, the lead dust was found in the home.

According to Ralph at the Alliance for Healthy Homes, " The real shame is

that lead poisoning is entirely preventable. We can make homes lead safe. "

The CDC estimates that annually 14,000 people die from radon-related cancer,

500 from carbon monoxide poisoning and 3,000 from house fires. These numbers

don't begin to reflect the health care costs, lost work and missed school

due to illness.

Another growing illness with links to the home is asthma. Airborne particles

containing rodent feces, mold and other irritants in the home are known to

be major contributors to asthma. The American Lung Association of Metropolitan

Chicago reports that asthma attacks send some 70,000 Chicagoans to the

emergency room every year. One recent study showed that the prevalence of

asthma

is as high as 30 percent in some low-income minority neighborhoods. Many of

these neighborhoods have high concentrations of older housing stock that is

badly in need of maintenance—even more so than Walter Hospital.

The solutions to this kind of neglect are fairly straightforward. A recent

study in Harlem, New York, found that an ambitious program in which health

care workers collaborated with housing advocates was able to virtually

eliminate

the need for overnight hospitalization due to asthma attacks. The public

health nurses educated residents about the proper use of medicines to manage

the

illness and housing advocates worked to rid the homes of rats, roaches, mold

and other asthma triggers. The study found that while there is no cure for

asthma, the disease could be controlled through a combination of medicine and

improved environmental conditions.

In the same way that there is no reason for wounded vets to live in

substandard conditions, there is no reason that our children should be getting

sick

in their homes. We can do something about it, but it takes investing in

maintaining our housing stock. Despite this growing body of evidence linking

health

and homes, the president's budget for fiscal 2008 contains a decrease in

funding for the Healthy Homes Program. If anything, we should be increasing our

investment and making sure that no one lives in a home that makes them sick.

So, the neglect of Walter Army Hospital is just the tip of an iceberg

of general neglect of our housing stock, especially for low- and

moderate-income people, that will cost our nation dearly in the long run.

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