As part of ongoing urban redevelopment efforts, aging U.S. cities are razing thousands of abandoned and derelict houses in aging neighborhoods. Baltimore, for example, has initiated a campaign to demolish 22,000 vacant, aging and deteriorating row houses by the year 2008. Such housing is likely to contain multiple environmental hazards, including lead-containing paint and dust, asbestos, rats, cockroaches, allergens and molds. Demolition activities can increase risks to human health as a result of the dispersion of multiple housing-related hazards into the ambient environment including neighboring houses, streets, sidewalks, yards, gardens and schools. During the course of their ongoing study of the fate of lead during demolition, Baltimore residents of minority and low-income neighborhoods expressed concerns about the hazards of usual demolition practices. Such concerns have included inadequate control of dust, rodents, insects, waste water, the public's access to the demolition site, and a lack of advance notice and educational/safety information to residents. Preliminary results from this ongoing study indicate that usual demolition practices are associated with increased lead levels in dust fall near the demolition site and that, remarkably, urban redevelopment activities are often undertaken with little knowledge and understanding of how to address and prevent human exposures to multiple housing-related health hazards. Their research goal is to develop culturally appropriate, community-based prevention interventions which are field tested and then incorporated into urban redevelopment activities in minority and low-income communities to improve the prevention and control of environmentally-related diseases and to enhance environmental justice.
Specific aims are: (1) to develop, with input from community organizations, health and housing agencies, and public health experts, a package of preventive interventions at the house and block level to control exposure to the multiple environmental hazards potentially generated by residential demolition and; (2) to assess the costs and effectiveness of the intervention package by conducting longitudinal field based research on two city blocks slated for demolition which includes measurement of lead and allergens (cockroach and mouse) in entryway mat dust; and (3) to assess the level of community acceptance and satisfaction by conducting in-home interviews.
