May 08

- BUILT ENVIRONMENT AND CHILDREN'S HEALTH -

The Home:

Here is a small note I would like all my architect friends, future clients & people who are making their homes should read. Since last February 2008 the understanding of Vastu as a science has increases four fold, also my fellow architect friends & few developers who never used to consider the vastu facts as important has come to the terms of my philosophy. Resultant is good for me, these days I am mostly intervening with town planners and architects who are in their own process of designing wants to incorporate Vastu principles.
Being an architect I never like to interfere with other's creativity, but few times I had to. I would here to quote a note by Allen Ginsberg “ I write poetry because the English word inspiration comes from Latin Spiritus, breath, ..........I want to breathe freely”

Built Environment Chidrens Health:

The built environment embraces a wide range of concepts, from the design and integrity of housing, to land-use and urban planning. A high quality environment is essential for children to achieve optimal health and development. Building and land-use policies, including the quality and design of a child's physical environment, can cause or prevent illness, disability and injury, and degrade or preserve natural resources.

Though many common pediatric conditions such as obesity, asthma, and lead poisoning as well as injuries, are associated with risk factors within a child's built environment this issue has received little attention from researchers or policymakers.
This new field is ripe for etiologic and prevention research, and we at Vastuworld is doing an extensive research with due consideration of children's needs within this arena.

Home-Child &Injury:

Solution: Environmental interventions to reduce pedestrian injuries include efforts to reduce traffic speed and volume, routing traffic away from neighborhoods, and building walkways and sidewalks Falls, carbon monoxide poisoning, and burns are common injuries that occur in the home in 1991, 40% of fall fatalities occurred in children younger than 5 years of age; death usually occurs after falls from three or more stories.

Solution: Window barriers are a highly effective method of preventing toddler falls from windows; New York City has virtually eliminated window falls by using such barriers). Carbon monoxide poisoning is the cause of nearly all deaths from gas or vapor poisoning Among them, about one-third are due to carbon monoxide emissions from home heating devices, which is preventable with adequate ventilation of heating equipment and use of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

Home and School.

Faulty construction or neglected maintenance is the primary cause of structural hazards in homes and schools. Faulty construction leads to building defects that increase the likelihood of structural hazards and fires, which in turn increase the risk of falls, burns, and other injuries.

These defects also lead to inadequate ventilation and moisture accumulation; both factors raise the levels of asthma triggers in the home Poor ventilation, especially of tightly sealed homes, can lead to the buildup of combustion by-products (such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide compounds), especially when wood-burning stoves, gas cooking stoves or air conditions are used.

In addition, synthetic components of building materials (for example, synthetic carpet and pressed wood) may emit toxic or respiratory irritant chemicals such as formaldehyde.

The structural condition of school

childcare settings can pose similar health risks as well. Common problems were damaged framing, floors and foundations; defective heating, cooling and ventilation systems; and leaking roofs.

Few Indian schools had hazardous conditions such as inadequate heat, or lack of fire extinguishers in 30% of buildings, and unclean bathrooms in 45% of facilities. Since many of the nation's schools were built when leaded paint was widely used, lead hazards are common in school facilities as well. For example, a 2006 school survey by the Department of Health Services found that 78% of public schools contained lead containing paint, 38% had flaking or peeling lead containing paint that posed a potential lead hazard, and 18% had water-lead levels that exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drinking water standard.

Efforts to control construction and environmental hazards in public schools have been hampered by inadequate funding for school maintenance and by the failure of local school boards to prioritize this issue on par with pedagogic concerns.