Recently, Defend Our Health hosted a community meeting in Lewiston to raise awareness around common health issues that are prevalent in older rental housing such as lead, mold, carbon monoxide, and radon. These health issues impact New Mainers unequally, with the impact falling mostly on tenants of color. This meeting was organized in partnership with the Rwandan Community Association of Maine and community leaders from immigrant communities in the Greater Portland area. 

Recent immigrants to the community, including refugees fleeing persecution and violence, often find themselves and their children facing serious health risks from their new homes. Lead-based paint, asthma triggers, and carbon monoxide risks are all more common in older rental homes. Older rental housing is a significant risk factor for childhood lead poisoning, with 87% of Maine children with elevated blood lead levels residing in a home built before 1950 and 69% living in a rental. According to Maine’s Division of Environmental and Community Health, childhood lead exposure is strongly linked to low IQ scores and worse educational outcomes. 

Amongst many other environmental health concerns linked to housing, there is robust literature illustrating that children in older homes and rental homes have higher rates of asthma and school days missed from asthma, likely associated with housing conditions. In addition to healthcare costs, increased asthma-caused absenteeism is associated with poorer educational outcomes.

The goal of our community meeting was to raise awareness of these issues and help community members know how to identify health risks at home, as well as learn what resources they can access to address such issues. 

We want to thank the Rwandan Community Association of Maine, the community leaders who have helped us through this project, and all the community members who attended the meeting.

If you would like to get involved, interested parties can email me at scahueque@defendourhealth.org.

Posted in Events, Healthy Housing and tagged , , , ,