Healthy Homes, Healthy Communities, and Healthy Drinking Water Initiatives or Programs

Healthy Drinking Water and Healthy Homes

The Healthy Homes, Healthy Communities, and Healthy Drinking Water Initiatives or Programs

The Healthy Homes Program / Healthy Home Initiates

“Environmental hazards in the home potentially harm millions of children each year. The Healthy Homes Program addresses multiple childhood diseases, exposures, and injuries that may originate in the home. The Initiative has a focus on housing-related hazards and educating and informing the public.  This was one of the key factors missing in the Flint Michigan Drinking Water Crisis. In response to Congress, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched its Healthy Homes Initiative (HHI) in 1999.  The objective of the program was to protect children and their families from housing-related health and safety hazards.

HUD has developed a new Healthy Homes Strategic plan that lays out the next steps their office will take to advance the healthy homes agenda nationwide. The HHI builds upon HUD’s successful Lead Hazard Control programs to expand its efforts to address a variety of environmental health and safety concerns including: mold , lead , allergens/ asthma, air quality gases and VOCs , pesticides , and radon .”

Learn More – https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/healthy_homes/hhi

New Healthy Homes Strategic Plan  -https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/DOC_13701.pdf

Healthy Communities

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) developed the Healthy Communities Program (HCP).  The program uses local, state, territory, and national partnerships to attempt to prevent chronic diseases and reduce health disparities (Note: For me this is a buzz word related to equity, we will never have equal outcomes in communities because of genetics, individual choice, and economics, and lifestyle issues, but we can attempt to treat all individuals equally).

Nearly 50% Americans die of one chronic disease, such as: heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer (polycythemica vera/ radon), obesity, and arthritis.

Chronic diseases make up 7 of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States and based on our recent experience with COVID, these diseases made individuals more vulnerable to the negative and adverse impacts associated with COVID-19. Not only can these diseases result in death, they can also be associated with chronic pain, inability to function and support an individual or family, limit daily activities, and significant impact a family’s budget and health care costs.

The Healthy Communities Program attempts to raise awareness and provide fact-based information, but also encourage citizens to make better choices, increase physical activity, make better food choices, and reduce the use of tobacco. These efforts addressed key factors that raise the risk of disease, including: CDC funded 331 communities and 52 state and territorial health departments through HCP .

Healthy Drinking Water/ Water Initiatives

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) implemented an education and information about healthy water, including drinking water, swimming / recreational water  , diseases related to poor sanitation and hygiene and waterborne disease , and and how to make water safe to drink in emergencies for outbreaks, preparedness, and response.

The Know Your H20 Program started our education outreach efforts in 1985 and created a formal program known as the Homeowner Outreach Program in 1989 and part of our program includes educating users about current and historic hazards in their communities (Neighborhood Hazard Report), community outreach efforts, asbestos, “Forever Chemicals (pfos, pfoa)“, and fact based information on drinking water and other environmental contaminants.

Drinking water comes from a variety of sources including public water systems , private wells , or bottled water. Ensuring safe and healthy drinking water may be as simple as turning on the tap from an EPA-regulated public water system. Other water sources may need to have point-of-use or whole house filtration systems, citizens educated and informed, water quality monitored, water distribution systems flushed and septic systems need to be serviced or inspected. It is important to know where drinking water comes from, how it’s been treated, and if it’s safe to drink.  Therefore, it is important to Know Your H20 and Get on the Path to Clean Water.

Call to Action:

Step 1: Get Informed
Step 2: Get Tested
Step 3: Get Treatment

Learn More at https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/index.html