Health Problems Associated with Housing Conditions

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL HEATH
Environmental health
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Author’s note

1ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
Health problems associated with housing condition of dampness:
 Respiratory problem: Mould growth in damp homes are the reason for common
symptoms in residents like wheeze, sore throat, irritability, headaches, fever and runny
nose. Patients with asthma were found to have hypersensitivity to fungi. Boomsma et al.
(2017) suggest that respiratory problem is most common in damp environment because
many bacteria and fungi thrive best in such condition.
 Poor mental well-being: Damp housing increases psychological problems like depression
in residents. Cold and damp home has an impact on mental well-being. In contrast,
residents living in homes which had energy efficiency were found to have lower odds of
poor mental health (Liddell & Guiney, 2015).
Health problems associated with cold house:
 Death from hypothermia is common in people living in cold housing and such risk is
mainly seen at temperature below 6 OC. This is evident from research done in Europe
which showed that extreme climatic conditions on house increases physiological health
risk in people. Hypothermia and death results due to cold induced thermoregulation
(Santamouris & Kolokotsa, 2015).
 Cold housing is the reason for death due to respiratory cause. High risk of respiratory
problem is seen in cold housing because of susceptibility of human respiratory tract to
infectious agents.
 Cold home is also associated with mental problems. Research carried out in Glasgow
revealed that quality of insulation has association with mental health (Liddell & Guiney,
2015).