Recently in Health and Safety Category

The lowest hanging fruit on the path to a lower-carbon economy lie in our homes, from weatherization to low-flow water fixtures to efficient appliances and lighting.

The environmental savings can be significant, and many projects will start contributing to your bank account in less than a year. Although each of our individual actions might be a drop in the bucket (as noted by some of the skeptical folks interviewed in the Times article), our collective actions will amount to significant change and send a message to both companies and our elected officials that the old way won't work anymore.

The first step is getting started, of course, and a good green consultant can help by explaining both the environmental and economic benefits of particular green projects.

Tackle green projects in these four groups, and we guarantee that you'll soon be on a logical and profitable path to a lower impact:

Make the easy fixes that have high environmental and economic benefits first. Many first steps can be done for $0 - $100, and can cut major chunks out of your energy, water and carbon footprints.

Swap out key house systems, starting with the biggest hogs and/or systems that have multiple impacts. Once you've cut your baseline down based on #1, turn to these bigger projects.

Install sustainable systems where possible for remaining water/energy needs. By now, you've probably cut your energy, water and sewer bills by 30-50%. But there's a huge added benefit to this tiering of projects: you've also reduced the cost of major sustainble system upgrades.

Offset the rest. In most existing homes, it's nearly impossible to competely cut your outside energy use and associated carbon footprint. Buy offsets for this remaining piece.

Learn more about living greener at Low Impact Living, one of the premier sources for information for home improvements that are greener and high performance.

The living standards of U.S. households are traditionally measured by income.

This report takes a different approach.

Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)

It measures living standards in terms of extended measures of well-being of households tracked in the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to help deepen our knowledge about household conditions in ways not captured by money alone.

Some aspects of well-being, such as fear of crime or quality of local public services, may be only loosely connected with money. Other measures are more closely related to income but can also be effected by factors such as the cost of living, age, disability status, and sudden changes in circumstances.

Extended measures of well-being provide a more complete and detailed picture of household living conditions in the United States than income alone provides.

Well-being Metrics

The U.S. Census Bureau tracks extended measures of well-being in the SIPP.2.  The SIPP's "Extended Measures of Well-Being" topical module, on which this report is based, covers five broad domains:

(1) appliances and electronic goods, such as possession of refrigerators, landline and cellular telephones, and computers;

(2) housing conditions, including level of satisfaction with overall home repair, adequate living space, and sufficient privacy;

(3) neighborhood conditions and community services, such as: road conditions and the presence of abandoned buildings; satisfactory police, fire, and medical services; and attitudes towards local schools;

(4) meeting basic needs, including the ability to pay bills in full, to avoid eviction, and to have sufficient food; and

(5) the expectation of help, should need arise, from friends, family, and the community. For this report, extended measures of well-being are used to describe living conditions in the United States for the time period 1992-2003.

DOE Weatherization Grantee Health and Safety Plans are required to include a protocol for dealing with mold found in client homes. The protocol should include a method of identifying the presence of mold during the initial audit or assessment, notification to the client, and crew training on how to alleviate mold and moisture conditions in homes.
 
The initial home assessment must include an item to identify if mold is present. If the energy auditor determines that mold is present and cannot be adequately addressed by the weatherization crew, the unit should be referred to the appropriate public or non-profit  agency for remedial action.
 
Local agencies need some form of notification and/or disclaimer to inform the client of  the discovery of a mold in the home. The notification will include specific work done on the home that should alleviate the mold problem. The notification needs to be discussed with and signed by the client and/or landlord. The notification can be part of an existing notification/disclaimer form being used for general weatherization work. Local agencies can also augment their client education practices to include mold prevention.

Crew Training on Moisture and Mold Hazards and Protocols
 
Grantees are required to provide crew training on identification and assessment of moisture and mold hazards, methods to alleviate conditions which promote mold growth, and protocols for client notification. DOE developed a recommended mold training curriculum and provided it to the Network as Weatherization Program Notice 06-4, which can be used for training purposes.
 
Check the WAPTAC website or  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Indoor Environments Division (IED), "A Brief Guide to Mold, Moisture and Your Home."
 
 

The  Weatherization Assistance Program's flexibility to improve the health and safety of the low-income persons served is intended to mean "energy-related" health and safety.

Grantees are reminded, the primary goal of the Weatherization Assistance Program is energy efficiency.

Achievement of this goal endures even with the program changes which allow the DOE funds to be used for health and safety risk mitigation. The final rule has eliminated the requirement that the cost of all energy-related health and safety risk mitigating be within the per home expenditure average.

Weatherization Assistance Program Grantees are still required to identify health and safety procedures and the percentage of costs involved as a part of their overall Health and Safety Plan to be approved by DOE. This change gives States and local agencies greater flexibility and incentive to incorporate new technologies and their costs into their programs by removing health and safety costs from the per-house limitation; if they are budgeted separately. In providing this flexibility, DOE will continue to encourage States to be prudent in their oversight of the percentage of funds approved for health and safety mitigation on homes weatherized by their local agencies.

Revised health and safety mitigation issues are discussed in Weatherization Program Notice 02-5 issued July 12, 2002. Some of the more noteworthy changes from the previous guidance include:

• a requirement for a five-part State Health and Safety Plan;
• identification of ten broad areas of potential hazard consideration that must be addressed;
• new deferral standards

The Health and Safety Plan includes a strengthened Lead Safe Weatherization (LSW) Plan.

LEAD PAINT HAZARD: 
DOE issued Weatherization Program Notice (WPN) 08-6 on September 22, 2008,  that contains the DOE requirements for Grantees to follow when working in homes
with lead-based paint.




MOLD AND MOISTURE IMPACTS
DOE is concerned with the escalating attention and related costs for addressing all of the energy-related health and safety issues in weatherized homes. The costs associated with LSW and pollution occurrence insurance coverage have had a profound impact on reducing the number of clients that can be served in a given year. Mold can have an even more costly impact on this Program if local agencies incur liabilities associated with mold resulting from weatherization work they perform. As local agencies strive to coordinate energy efficiency concerns with health and safety needs in the homes they serve, it is imperative for them to understand that the goals of other Federal programs may not be attainable in weatherized homes if non-DOE funds are not available. Grantees and local agencies should ensure that regular weatherization work is performed in a manner that doesn't contribute to mold problems.