I.1 Reducing the Effects of Gas Stove Emissions on Older Adults with Asthma
Research has documented that housing conditions often negatively impact resident health, particularly vulnerable populations (Northridge, 2010). Asthma has many known indoor environmental triggers, as evidenced by approximately 18 million adults (CDC, 2014) in the U.S. with asthma. Home intervention studies have demonstrated that air purifiers with HEPA/carbon filters reduce indoor nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations more effectively than ventilation hoods (Paulin et al, 2014), and HEPA air filter interventions effectively reduce indoor particulate matter (PM) (Maestas et al, 2019; Cox et al, 2018; Rice et al, 2018). A major gap in these findings is the absence of studies measuring both PM and NO2 concentrations from cooking with gas stoves and the concurrent reduction in both pollutants when using these air purifiers. This research answers the following questions: 1) will the use of HEPA/charcoal filtration decrease NO2 and PM levels from cooking in homes with gas stoves; 2) will reductions in PM symptoms and reduces health care utilization.
I.1 Presenters: David Turcotte PhD, Khafayat Kadiri, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Session I.2 Title:: Smoke-free Housing Policy Implementation Research: Developing New Tools to Address an Old (and Persistent) Problem
Smokefree housing rules, including a federal mandate in PHAs, are being increasingly adopted in multiunit residential settings to reduce the serious illness caused by chronic secondhand smoke exposure and promote better quality of life. Effective implementation of those policies is needed to ensure optimal impact, yet there are few evidence-based implementation resources. We will report findings of an evaluation of the effectiveness of an evidence-informed, smokefree housing implementation framework designed to be tailored to the needs of low-income housing communities. This study was conducted among 12 affordable housing communities in the northern Appalachian region as they adopted a smoke-free rule for the first time. A randomized, adaptive intervention was Page 1 of 8 used in which three “waves” of N=4 properties received basic exposure to the implementation framework, or an iteratively enhanced implementation intervention, based on Property Manager and resident feedback. We observed marked improvements in objective measures of indoor SHS, coupled with lowered perceived exposure to SHS among residents and an overall reduction in cigarettes consumed, one month after the policy went to effect, which were sustained through eight months post-adoption. Our new project aims to adapt the smokefree housing implementation framework to meet the needs of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) communities, which have resident communities with high smoking rates and challenging social and health needs, including substance use and mental health disorders. As PSH expands in coming years, tools to support smokefree communities are urgently needed to reduce the burden of tobacco smoke exposure and achieve more equitable health outcomes among people with a history of chronic homelessness. We will discuss our plans to test the acceptability and feasibility of an adapted version of our Building Success smokefree implementation toolkit, by fully integrating ancillary social and health services into a smokefree implementation framework to meet the needs of PSH residents.
I.2 Presenter/Panelist: Vaughan Rees, PhD, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
