Review of the Impact of Housing Quality on Inequalities in Health and Well-Being.

Housing quality is essential for population health and broader well-being. The World Health Organization Housing and health guidelines highlight interventions that protect occupants from cold and hot temperatures, injuries, and other hazards. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of ventilation standards. Housing standards are unevenly developed, implemented, and monitored globally, despite robust research demonstrating that retrofitting existing houses and constructing high-quality new ones can reduce respiratory, cardiovascular, and infectious diseases. Indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, and people with low incomes face cumulative disadvantages that are exacerbated by poor-quality housing. These can be partially ameliorated by community-based programs to improve housing quality, particularly for children and older people, who are hospitalized more often for housing-related illnesses. There is renewed interest among policy makers and researchers in the health and well-being of people in public and subsidized housing, who are disproportionately disadvantaged by avoidable housing-related diseases and injuries. Improving the overall quality of new and existing housing and neighborhoods has multiple cobenefits, including reducing carbon emissions.

The theory and practice of a politics of compassion in the private rental sector: a study of Aotearoa, NZ and ‘kindness’ during the COVID-19 pandemic

What is a politics of compassion, and what are the implications for the private rental sector? In this article, we describe how an intended politics of compassion manifested in Aotearoa during the pandemic and analyse how this compares to compassion's theoretical framing in the work of Martha Nussbaum. Building on these theoretical insights, we then turn to practice, by analysing the vulnerabilities of, and barriers to, a politics of compassion evident in Government and landlord response to renters during the pandemic. We find a compounding of existing power inequity and the absence of compassion from political and administrative understandings in the face of neoliberal myths of the individualised market and fear of opportunism from those in poverty. We conclude with a discussion of the potential for a more compassionate private rental sector and make the case for an analysis of power, equity, and justice, in the theory and practice of a politics of compassion.

Housing and health: an updated glossary.

Recent crises have underscored the importance that housing has in sustaining good health and, equally, its potential to harm health. Considering this and building on Howden-Chapman's early glossary of housing and health and the WHO Housing and Health Guidelines, this paper introduces a range of housing and health-related terms, reflecting almost 20 years of development in the field. It defines key concepts currently used in research, policy and practice to describe housing in relation to health and health inequalities. Definitions are organised by three overarching aspects of housing: affordability (including housing affordability stress (HAS) and fuel poverty), suitability (including condition, accessibility and sustainable housing) and security (including precarious housing and homelessness). Each of these inter-related aspects of housing can be either protective of, or detrimental to, health. This glossary broadens our understanding of the relationship between housing and health to further promote interdisciplinarity and strengthen the nexus between these fields.

Indoor air quality, largely neglected and in urgent need of a refresh

While outdoor air quality is managed under the Resource Management Act 1991, which sets National Environmental Standards for outdoor air, no equivalent legislation exists for indoor air quality. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognises that healthy indoor air is a basic human right, stating that the quality of the air people breathe in buildings is an important determinant of health and wellbeing.3 According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States (US), indoor air pollutant levels are typically two-to-five times higher than outdoor levels, and in some cases exceed outdoor levels of the same pollutants by a 100 times.4 Globally around 2.6 billion people still use solid fuels and kerosene for cooking, and the United Nations notes that indoor and ambient air pollution are the greatest environmental health risk.3 Time spent indoors combined with higher indoor concentrations of pollutants make the health risks associated with poor air quality usually greater indoors than outdoors. While initial public health efforts focused on measures to reduce fomite transmission, such as hand-washing, it is now well-recognised that airborne exposure is the predominant transmission route of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19).6 International consensus on airborne transmission was achieved in part through cutting-edge research conducted by New Zealand experts, but New Zealand health authorities have been slow to apply this key insight beyond border settings.7 It is imperative that national bodies responsible for the control of the pandemic incorporate the importance of airborne transmission to inform an evidence-based strategy and implement a range of highly effective measures that can prevent airborne transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other respiratory pathogens, including influenza.8-9'1011 The most effective approach to lowering concentrations of indoor air pollutants, including any pathogens that may be in the air, is usually to increase ventilation,12 exchanging polluted indoor air for cleaner outdoor air. Pollutant standards for heating and cooking appliances, particularly for appliances that use unflued gas should also be considered.20 An investment in clean indoor air could bring benefits other than reducing COVID-19 transmission, including reduced sick leave and school absenteeism caused by other respiratory infections, particularly influenza and other allergies.21 Less absenteeism-with associated adverse effect on productivity-could save companies significant costs.22 Furthermore, there is growing evidence that improved ventilation can improve cognitive functioning of workers and students,23 which can improve both wellbeing, sleep and productivity.24 Ventilation can also reduce indoor moisture particularly in homes, which wifi reduce exposure to respiratory allergens and irritants such as dust mites and mould, resulting in reduced incidence of asthma, rhinitis and allergy symptoms.