Because African American and other minorities often live in older, deteriorating housing (pre-1950s construction), millions of their children are at risk of mental retardation, impaired growth, respiratory infections, chronic diseases, even death. Loss wages, school absences, hospitalizations and the need for costly medical care for asthma, allergies and other respiratory conditions combine to create a health crisis of epidemic proportions.

This reality coupled with the growing inability of housing authorities, property owners and managers of affordable housing to keep pace with the costs of necessary physical improvements, environmental safeguards and educational programs represents a major challenge to policymakers, housing advocates and industry practitioners. The National Organization of African Americans in Housing (NOAAH) is committed to identifying solutions to this crisis that strike a balance between the need to make costly environmental and physical improvements to the nation's affordable housing stock and provide decent, safe and quality housing for the families who live there.


Pests

In 1999, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that 5 percent of the U.S. population was asthmatic, and that the number of individuals afflicted increased from 6.7 million in 1980 to 17.3 million in 1998. Of those sufferers, 4.8 million are children. African-Americans and children continue to have higher rates of asthma-related emergency room visits, hospitalizations and deaths, according to the CDC. In addition, a 2001 CDC study noted that because minorities are disproportionately concentrated in poor housing, they suffer the most from pest-related health problems.

Studies reported in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1997 - focusing on eight metropolitan inner-city areas with home-testing of young children -- found that the combination of cockroach allergy and exposure to high levels of allergens may help explain health problems in inner-city children.

The links below offer a wide range of information about pests and what can and is being done:


General Pesticide Questions

Pest Threats Kit

Are pests in your home making your kids sick?

Children's Asthma Study

Getting Ready for War With Household Pests

Mouse Allergy Contributes to Inner

Pest Problems are not Child's Play

Read the Label First

Study shows which bug sprays work

The Problem with Pests

Use Pesticide Control Products Responsibly

What's behind a pesticide label

 Mold
Lead Based Paint
Pests