September 13 — Attend a workshop on “Master Home Environmentalist”
Learn how to make the home environment safer and healthier for individuals. This program teaches volunteers how to asses their neighbors’ homes and makes recommendations that are of low or no cost to the resident.
When: Saturday September 13, 1:00 to 4:30 PM
Where: Indianapolis Peace House 1421 Central Ave. Indianapolis
From the Indianapolis Peace Institute’s preliminary blurb:
A workshop from the American Lung Association. Entitled the “Master Home Environmentalist” (MHE) Program, it is a volunteer based program geared toward making the home environment safer and healthier for individuals. This program teaches volunteers how to asses their neighbors’ homes and makes recommendations that are of low or no cost to the resident. Anyone is welcome to attend this session.
Why does Provocate think you should attend this event?
It sounds important, with major payoffs form a few hours invested.
The Master Home Environmentalist© (MHE©) Program is an innovative approach to addressing issues of indoor pollution that can damage health and the environment. It is efficient to assess exposure to pesticides, allergens, molds, tobacco smoke, lead, and home chemicals in one visit rather than through separate programs and an integrated in-home intervention may help to reduce total exposure to many pollutants. The overall mission is to promote health by reducing pollutants in the home through volunteer-based education and action.
The MHE program trains volunteers to visit homes at no cost and to assist residents in assessing and managing environmental health problems. The MHE volunteer utilizes a survey form called the Home Environmental Assessment List© (HEAL©) to identify potential problems and develop, in conjunction with the resident, an action plan to reduce exposure to pollutants. The personalized action plan can lead to steps such as use of efficient vacuums and quality door mats, shoe removal at the door, ventilation, integrated pest management, and allergen control. Most of these measures are low cost. Some measures to improve ventilation and control moisture may require some time and money to implement.
Indoor pollution has been identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board (EPA, 1987, 1990) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC, 1991) as a high environmental risk. And according to the EPA, currently we spend about 90% of our time indoors and our indoor air can be up to five times as polluted as our outdoor air. The problems with exposure to pollutants in the home often are not addressed due to lack of awareness of their prevalence and significance. Home pollutant exposure may result in asthma, retarded growth, learning disabilities, allergies, cancer, lung disease, symptoms of sick building syndrome, and other illnesses.. Important new information about the alarming rise in childhood asthma cases and hospitalizations has added new urgency to addressing indoor pollution.
The Master Home Environmentalist program is designed to assist people in identifying health and environmental concerns at home and to make recommendations that help them to reduce their exposure to indoor pollutants.
If you think this sounds interesting, be sure to check out …
Other events will focus on children and the environment, and thus can be part of this larger conversation of the way we will live in the coming years. The conference on “Balanced Transportation for Healthier Communities” on September 8 will touch on children’s health and lack of exercise as environmental issues … perhaps policymakers will pay attention and take those factors into account when tacking challenges of (sub)urban design. What makes other upcoming events intriguing is the effort to give kids the freedom themselves to think of solutions. The Dignity Center of Orchard School will do this when they bring environmental justice activist Majora Carter to Indianapolis October 16 and 17. The IMA will do this when they bring Alice Waters to talk about “edible schoolyards” on December 2.
Know before you go:
The Peace Institute will produce a set of suggested readings. In the meantime, skim over the MHE Program Guide.
