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Environmental Health Home Assessment

The environmental health and safety assessment tool is a useful itemized list that helps evaluate which areas of the home or which common objects in the home may be cause for environmental exposures that could negatively impact health. Upon completion of this brief assessment, my awareness around basic artifacts and areas in the home grew. This brought to the forefront of my mind the need for testing and proper ventilation of certain parts of the house; minimal usage of air fresheners and candles; and improved emergency preparedness. There seems to be appropriate ventilation throughout the house. Air fresheners are seldom used and scented candles are rarely burned since they’re mainly for aesthetics. Although, it’ll still be important to purchase aerosol or candle products that have less toxic ingredients to prevent fume inhalation. Furthermore, there needs to be a comprehensive emergency/disaster plan for the family to discuss and practice together. 

Additionally, the tool helped me recognize the importance of being more mindful about purchasing or building homes because the materials used or the way certain sections of the home are built could influence people’s health. This assessment will certainly be beneficial for when I buy my first house. Overall, this tool will help me formulate the questions necessary to identify any environmental health risks when home buying. Homeownership is a major investment, so a home must both be beautiful and safe. Asking the right questions during the buying process will also be a great way to prevent any potential major/unexpected expenses related to mold, gas leaks, and more. Many people (i.e., home buyers, sellers, builders) should be responsible for making sure there are few to none home-based environmental health risks, but home health inspectors are critical to assessing the safety of a home prior to buying/selling.

Moreover, the tool emphasized the need for more frequent and improved emergency preparedness. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 60% of adult Americans didn’t have disaster drills at home, work, or school and only 39% have an emergency plan and have discussed within their households (FEMA, 2015). Our family has reviewed over many occasions about what steps to take during certain emergencies or disasters. However, they have been non-comprehensive and irregular — which isn’t very useful. Having completed the charting exercise and home assessment, I feel more equipped to evaluate the safety of our family home and my own house in the future.





References

FEMA. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2015/04/28/sixty-percent-americans-not-practicing-disaster-fema-urges-everyone-prepare

Comments

  1. JudyJudeAugust 29, 2018 at 7:26 PM

    Hi Nica, thank you for posting information on FEMA. I agree that many of us are not prepared for emergencies nor do we have a disaster plan set. However, this course has planted the seed, and we will be better equipped with increased knowledge on the matter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Antonio SorianoAugust 30, 2018 at 8:41 PM

    Hi Nica, I enjoyed reading your post. It is important to take into account all of these factors when purchasing a home, moving into an apartment, or where ever one may reside. A home should be a safe haven/sanctuary for the individual. It is important that an individual has a safe place where one can come home too. I agree that this health assessment prompts the right questions when looking for a new place to live or analyzing the environmental risk factors of one's current residence.

    ReplyDelete

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