PSD Track 1: Session IV: 1) Engaging Residents 2) Non-intrusive approach to identify lead poisoning risks

Engaging residents to maximize the impacts of housing rehabilitation programs on SVOCs, allergens, and lead.

Our primary goal is to evaluate the effectiveness of integrating resident engagement in homes participating in lead and healthy homes rehab programs to sustainably improve housing conditions and to evaluate the combined influence of housing rehabilitation and resident engagement on exposures to SVOCs, lead, and allergens. The success of HUD’s Lead Hazard Control (LHC) program to reduce dust lead levels effectively and sustainably in homes has been well documented; however, the influence of LHC on other housing hazards has not yet been evaluated. It is possible that LHC activities influence chemical hazards in the home, potentially resulting in even greater benefit with respect to reduced exposure and improved health than realized. We measure SVOC levels, including pesticides, phthalates, and flame retardants, in homes before (baseline), shortly after clearance (after lead hazard control work is completed), and then 4 months after clearance in homes taking part in a HUD-funded LHC program in Rochester, NY. As well, to quantify the impact of a healthy housing assessment program that directly engages the resident, we will conduct a two-armed randomized controlled trial (RCT) with half of the homes receiving only the HUD-funded LHC remediation work (the control) and the other half receiving LHC as well as an enhanced version of New York State’s Healthy Neighborhoods Program (the intervention, HNP+). The HNP+ intervention directly engages the resident by providing education, referrals, and products to reduce common housing hazards such as lead, allergens, pesticides, and other SVOCs. To date, enrollment and first visits have been completed (86 participants) and approximately half have undergone Lead Hazard control. This project also leveraged pilot funding to investigate PFAS in a subset of households’ dust and a NIEHS R-21 grant to collect and analyze urine samples from 60 participants for the same chemicals being measured in dust. This presentation will provide an overview of the study design, progress to date, and the potential to utilize our findings for future collaborative research and policy change.

Session Presenter: Katrina Korfmacher, PhD, Professor of Environmental Medicine, University of Rochester

The neighborhood housing conditions survey: a simple, inexpensive, and non-intrusive approach to identify lead poisoning risks.

The neighborhood housing conditions survey (NHCS) measures easily observed conditions of residential housing structures along with the with grounds surrounding them and the civic infrastructure. The NHSC has been used in the Kansas City metropolitan area to evaluate over 260 thousand housing units over a fifteen-year period. It has a rigorous Page 4 of 8 training protocol and quality control procedures to ensure the ratings are consistent across surveyors, geographic location, and time. It is inexpensive with total costs between $4.25 and $7.50 per structure. Since it involves observations in a public setting, it does not require human subjects review. The NHSC has been used for a variety of purposes including establishing how housing conditions can influence health. In this talk, I show how the NHCS can be used to track homes more effectively at risk for childhood lead poisoning.

Presenter: Stephen Simon, PhD, Department of Biomedical and Health Informatics, School of Medicine, University of Missouri-Kansas City