Housing and Health — Proposal of a Methodology for Risk Assessment for Occupants

Abstract

Nowadays people spend a large amount of their time inside their homes. However, prevailing indoor conditions in terms of comfort and environmental quality could present health challenges to the inhabitants. Therefore, a good indoor environmental quality is essential, since in addition to the risk parameters present in indoor air, the relative humidity and the dangers inherent in housing, the health and human well-being can also be affected by high or low temperatures inside their homes. It is necessary that during the use of the building the sources of risk are identified, in order to prevent them and to promote the health of its occupants. In this context, this paper intends to describe a proposal to create a methodology that provides a risk assessment for the occupants of a dwelling, with certain technical features and also delivers some information about a pilot campaign that was launched by an interdisciplinary team from University of Beira Interior in order to collect and analyze some indoor environment data from 6 households representing 6 different decades.