How Healthy Is Your Home?

Homes can be surprisingly dangerous places with the potential for both environmental hazards and safety concerns.

Homes can contain lead-based paint, asbestos, formaldehyde, radon, mold, imported drywall and other substances that can cause illnesses or chronic health problems. Homes are also full of safety hazards from stairs and stoves to bathtubs and swimming pools that can contribute to accidents, injuries or deaths.

Hazards at home Substandard housing is a significant public health problem, according to Sandra Whitehead, director of healthy community design at the Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee and a technical advisor for the National Environmental Health Association, a nonprofit organization in Denver.

"People who reside in substandard housing are at increased risk for fire, electrical injuries, falls, rodent bites and other illnesses and injuries. Other issues include exposure to pesticide residues, indoor toxicants, tobacco smoke and combustion gases. Burning oil, gas and kerosene can release a variety of combustion products, including carbon monoxide, a well-known cause of illness and death," Whitehead said via email.

Homes can also harbor mold, unhealthy indoor air or residues from illegal drug manufacturing.

"Materials such as carpet and wallboard in homes used as meth labs have absorbed chemicals that can damage the nervous system, liver and blood production mechanisms. Children are at the highest risk, and exposure can trigger birth defects and developmental issues for babies in utero," Whitehead explained.

Home inspection Many home hazards were originally introduced by builders and contractors, says Jay Gregg, director of marketing at Pillar to Post Professional Home Inspections, a Tampa, Florida-based franchise company with 450 outlets in the U.S. and Canada.

One way to find these hazards is get a home inspection , but that's only a starting point. A home inspector can't move furniture or boxes without the homeowner's permission and even a vacant house isn't 100 percent accessible.

First-time homebuyers especially should seek the help of a home inspector as they have never been through the homebuying process before and are not aware of the potential problems they could encounter as homeowners.

"We can't see behind drywall," Gregg says. "We aren't Superman. People end up doing renovations and (discover that) -- whoa! -- there's funky wiring behind this piece of drywall. There's no way a home inspector could see that."

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How Healthy Is Your Home?