We can do something about this

(MG) One of the first blogs (perhaps e-zines is more appropriate) I encountered and began to read regularly was TomPaine.commonsense. This timely compendium contains stories, analyses, and opinion pieces on a wide variety of topics near and dear to my heart. Topics which affect citizens of the US, and inhabitants of the globe. As my blog-reading world became more far-flung, I spent less time on TomPaine. But I save their e-mail alerts, and periodically try to catch up. Found this tremendous piece on health care in the USA. National security, national defense involves, in this the nuclear age, the health and well being of ALL our citizens. It's been years since our last devastating influenza outbreak. But that is the arc of such things. They come, they go, they fester and get stronger. Ultimately, none are any safer than the poorest, living in the most squalid of conditions. Infectious diseases kill indiscriminately, regardless of race, creed, gender, or social class. This statement applies not only to one's nation, but to one's planet.

The Tip Of The Iceberg
John Bartlett
March 30, 2007

John Bartlett is director of the Metropolitan Tenants Organization. His email address is johnb@tenants-rights.org

Outrage has grown—as it should—over the mold, roaches, mice and poor living conditions found in Walter Reed 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 Scott 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 Reed 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 Reed 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.