For 10 years, Battelle has worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to develop effective methods of assessing and mitigating children’s health risks from lead poisoning. This work has included risk analyses to establish health-based standards for residential lead exposure, as well as evaluations of lead poisoning prevention approaches. More recently, Battelle has begun work on the broader issue of the multiple hazards children face in the residential environment. Such hazards include asthma, which affects more than 17 million people in the United States and is the most common chronic illness among children; home-related injuries, estimated by the National Safety Council to cost the nation $101.7 billion in 1999; and indoor toxins such as molds, pesticides, and carbon monoxide.

Surprisingly, the impact of residential hazards on children’s health has not been well characterized. Many questions remain on the prevalence and severity of these hazards and on effective methods to assess and reduce risk. In 1998, HUD launched the Healthy Homes Initiative to help protect children from housing conditions that are responsible for multiple diseases and injuries. Battelle is working with HUD to develop the technical information required for an effective research and intervention support program.

One of the first issues demanding attention is how a residential environment can be effectively assessed for multiple hazards. In background papers prepared for HUD, Battelle documented the current methodology used to assess asthma, mold, injury, and pesticide hazards. Battelle is also working with HUD and the EPA to develop options for an integrated overall risk assessment.

Risk assessments for residential hazards normally involve some combination of visual inspection, occupant surveys, or sampling of representative environmental media in the home like dust or air and quantification of a hazardous substance in the sample. An integrated assessment of residential hazards involves multiple judgments, including:

• the relative risk of different hazards, including special sensitivities;
• the nature and extent of the individual hazards, such as concentrations of contaminants; and
• interactions or synergisms between individual hazards.

A host of technical issues arise as part of the assessment process, ranging from measurement issues such as the quality assurance and quality control used in allergen and mold sample collection and analysis, to interpretation issues such as the basis for inferring causal relationships between risk factors and disease.

HUD’s Healthy Homes grantees have received more than $16 million in grants since 1999 to implement research and hazard mitigation programs. Battelle’s work with HUD to provide technical assistance as well as background information and guidance documents on assessment, intervention options and program evaluation is helping to develop the knowledge-base needed for addressing residential hazards.

For more information please contact John Menkedick at (614) 424-3699, menked@battelle.org.