M2S5 Built Environment Flashcards
Built environment examples
-infrastructures like houses, community structures, transportation structures
3 general ways housing can affect health
Internal housing conditions
-like biological, chemical and physical hazards
Ex. Physical design can lead to accidents
Area characteristics
-social benefits like friendships and neighbours and location like proximity to services, hazards, community life
Housing tenure
-psychological benefits like control and meaning
-financial dimensions like owning/renting and affordability
Ways direct housing and living spaces impact health
Pollutants
-outdoor air pollution great impact on individuals house in both urban and rural settings
Building materials
-some modern building and furnishing material contains chemicals that can lead to short-term (ex. Skin allergy, eye irritation, sneezing) or long-term (ex. Asthma, cancer, infertility) health outcomes
Mild/bacteria
-humidity from baths and showers can create mold and bacteria in spaces like bathroom
-can lead to respiratory ailments like asthma and allergic reactions
Irritants
-animal hair and dander can cause asthma attacks and allergic reactions
Fireplaces
-combustion gases from fireplaces and wood burning stoves can trigger respiratory illnesses
Cleaning products
-chemicals from cleaning products used in kitchen release VOCs that can irritate eyes, nose, and throat, and can cause difficulty breathing or nausea
Fumes
-carbon monoxide flumes from attached garages can cause confusion, vomiting, dizziness, weakness, headaches, and in concentrated doses can be lethal
Gases
-include radon seeping through foundation and cracks to home can lead to lung cancer
Cigarettes
-cigarette smoke contains some 4,000 chemicals
-primary, secondary and even tertiary smoke can lead to lung cancer and other respiratory illness, especially when smoked inside
Solvents
-chemical fumes from paints and solvents used and stored in homes and living spaces also released VOCs
Residential segregation
-explains why there is great variation in built environments even in close proximity to each other as intential development practice
2014 article on residential segregation, Dr. Timber lake and Dr. Ignatov defined as
“Residential segregation refers generally to the spatial separation of two or more social groups within a specified geographic area, such as a municipality, a county, or a metropolitan area. Most commonly, scholarship on residential segregation explores the extent to which groups defined by racial, ethic, or national origin live in different neighbourhoods
Residential segregation and its impact on health
- refer to goodnotes chart
Canadas plan for homeless
-no unified, national housing plan and federal housing invest,ents continue to erode
-big issue in Canada
Kingston voted to remove an homeless tents and created temperorary little homes like one dad showed
Types of homelessness faced by many Canadians
- refer to goodnotes for homeless stats in Canada
Unsheltered homelessness
-individuals who at some point in life had to live in a homeless shelter, on the streets or in parks, in makeshift shelters, or in an abandoned building
-currently occurs in 2.6% of male population and 2.3% of the female population in Canada
-with a population of nearly 39 million people in 2022, this represents more than a million people who have experienced unsheltered homelessness at some point
Hidden homelessness
-individuals who had to temporarily live with friends or family, or anywhere else cause had no where else to go
-about 15% of Canadian population has experienced this for of homelessness and that represents more than 5.8 million people
Core housing need and housing tenure aspects
-core housing need term used if one or more of these items exists:
Lack of affordability
-when tenants pay more than 30% of their income on their housing
Lack of suitability
-occurs when tenants live in overcrowding conditions
Lack of adequacy
-tenant’s house lacks a full bathroom or requires significant repair
Canadian core housing needs
- refer to goodnotes to see core housing need rate for Canada and census metropolitan areas in 2016
-in Canada, percent of households in any given Canadian city is about 12.7% of households overall
-provincial and territorial statistics demonstrate there are also many variations, which a higher rate of core housing need in northern territories
-in Nunavut in 2016, 32.9% of households had some form of core housing needs
-patterns also obvious for sub-groups in canadas population: 35.4% of recent immigrants, 28.6% of lone parent households, 25.6% of adults order than 65 years without a primary care physician, 20.4% of people who identify as indigenous
Dimensions of core housing needs
-2016 census data show unaffordable housing likely driving the core housing need statistics
Unaffordable housing - 76.1% of households in core housing need in unaffordable housing only
Unsuitable housing - 4.3% unsuitable housing only
Inadequate housing - 4.5% inadequate housing only
Below 2+ indicator thresholds - 14.5% below two or more indicator thresholds
Housing and life course perspective
-reminder to consider determinants of health as they differ by different points (ages) in a persons life
-young children in pre-school years for example spend a large portion of their time at home and housing plays an important role in child development
-stating this, children more vulnerable to exposure to physical, chemical, and biological harms because of their specific behaviours (ex. Playing on the floor, putting things in mouth) and the impacts might be more severe because of the lack of maturity of their body
Access of food and its relation to environmental health determinants
-food systems directly tied to physical a and natural environments
Ex. Land needs to be used for agriculture to produce food and use of chemicals in agriculture can be a major toxic health hazard. Furthermore, food manufacturing industry is complex and multi-trillion-dollar enterprise that is connected to human health in many ways
-finally, certain neighborhoods are better set up for healthy food access and distribution
Food systems
The way which food is produce/created/collected/distributed/accessed
How do neighbourhoods affect a persons health
Physical features
-physical features of the environment shared by all residents of locality including air, water, grocery stores etc.
Availability of healthy environments
-refer to decent and secure housing, non-hazardous work, safe play areas, etc
Services provided
-services provided to support daily life (both public and private) including education, transport, health, etc.
Socio-cultural features
-include political, economic, ethnic, history, norms, values, crime, and support networks
Reputation of an area
-how neighbourhoods are perceived by insiders and outsiders and can affect the investment, self esteem and morale, who moves in and out etc.
Food deserts
-often very intentional tactic used by businesses
-certain neighbourhoods are structured in a way that there is no easy access to healthy food sources, and in which unhealthy food (such as fast foods and foods at convenience stores) exist as closest and easiest options for residents
