As many as 1 in 3 children live in unhealthy homes, finds the latest Healthy Homes Barometer report from VELUX.

The Healthy Homes Barometer is a yearly publication that draws on the results of a series of Pan-European surveys to investigate the link between buildings and health throughout Europe. This year’s edition turns its attention to the impact that unhealthy homes have on the health, wellbeing and learning abilities of children.

It was found that housing deficiencies like dampness, darkness, cold temperatures and excess noise can contribute negatively to children’s health, with children 4.2 times more likely to report poor health when living in these poorly performing homes. As children of low-income families are more likely to live in low-performing and deficient homes, they were found to be proportionately more exposed to these risks.

Some of the impacts associated that poorly-performing homes had for children include:

• 10 – 15 percent of new cases of childhood asthma in Europe can be attributed to exposure to dampness and mould indoors. This exposure can be linked to more than 37.000 years of healthy, disease-free life lost.
• Poor homes result in 1.7 million lost days of school each year

The report recommended that enhanced ventilation in European schools could boost student performance and lead to an increase of European GDP of nearly €250 billion.

More information here