The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded nearly $8.4 million to seven universities and two other research institutions to improve the agency’s and the public's knowledge of housing-related health and safety hazards.
One goal is to develop new methods for identifying and mitigating lead-based paint hazards that pose a particular health risk to young children.
HUD’s Lead and Healthy Homes Technical Studies Program (HHTS) supports the development of new scientific techniques to assess and control a variety of home-related health risks including lead, pesticides, secondhand tobacco smoke, cockroach allergens and indoor air pollutants.
“Today, we make an investment in the science behind protecting families from potentially dangerous lead and other home health hazards,” HUD Secretary Ben Carson said in a news release. “As a doctor for many years, I witnessed how lead and other hazards can impact young children. You can’t be healthy if your home is sick and these grants will improve our knowledge about how to improve living conditions inside our homes.”
Carson added that the main purpose of the Lead Technical Studies Program is to gain knowledge to improve the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of methods for evaluation and control of residential lead-based paint hazards, and the overall goal of the HHTS program is to advance the recognition and control of priority residential health and safety hazards and more closely examine the link between housing and health.
Grant recipients include:
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