September 28, 2006 Source: :
http://www.sfu.ca/mediapr/news_releases/archives/news09280601.htm Building healthy homes Contact: Tim Takaro, 604.268.7186, ttakaro@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca Website: http://www.thehighpoint.com/breatheasy.html September 28, 2006 A newly revamped complex of low-income housing could help its occupants, many of them children with asthma, breath easier. Tim Takaro, an associate professor in health sciences at Simon Fraser University, is evaluating, over a two-year period, the 35 homes in West Seattle, which he helped design and build. The United States Housing and Urban Development department is funding Takaro’s collaborative study with Neighborhood House, Seattle Housing Authority, Public Health Seattle and King County. The homes’ add-on features are designed to reduce or eliminate dust mites, molds, mouse droppings and other environmental troublemakers that make life miserable for people allergic to them. Air-filtration heat exchangers recycle the homes’ air every three hours; foam insulation underlies the homes’ concrete foundations to reduce moisture and the growth of molds. There is minimal carpeting to discourage dust and allergen accumulation. Takaro recently presented his work on the so-called Breathe Easy Homes in West Seattle’s High Point neighbourhood at an environmental expo in Seattle. "We know that simple home environmental interventions work to reduce asthma", says Takaro. "The question we’re trying to answer at High Point is how much additional benefit is there to designing and constructing homes specifically to reduce asthma triggers." Takaro adds: "Children with asthma in BC, particularly those who live in substandard housing, would likely benefit from similar interventions, whether they be simply education about home environmental triggers, community health worker directed interventions inside the home or specially constructed Breathe Easy homes." Takaro has training as a physician. He collaborates with a variety of community-based organizations and specialists, including analytical chemists, architects and epidemiologists in developing strategies to reduce environmental hazards for people with chronic respiratory problems.
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