Environmental Health: Keep Your Home Safe and Healthy
The places where we live, work, and play can affect our health and quality of life. Watch this video for an overview of potential indoor health hazards and then find resources on this page for steps you can take to keep your home safe and healthy.
Healthy Homes Habits
Whether you rent or own, everyone deserves a safe and healthy home. A healthy home is in good physical condition and free from harmful chemicals and hazards. Home environmental hazards, such as lead-based paint, radon, and second-hand smoke, can harm the health of people who live in or visit the home.
Fill out the 10 Healthy Home Habits self-quiz to help you understand where there could be harmful chemicals or other hazards around your home.
Once you have completed the self-quiz, act on any possible hazards by using this list of resources below.
Complete the Healthy Home Habits self-quiz online
Access the Healthy Homes Habits self quiz, P-03806 (PDF) to print and share.
Keep your home's internal temperature comfortable in hot or cold weather.
- Protecting Your Family from Extreme Heat, P-02076 (PDF) offers tips for staying healthy in extreme heat.
- Get energy rebates and incentives at Focus on Energy.
- State of Wisconsin Division of Energy, Housing, and Community Resources Energy Assistance (DEHCR) programs help low-income residents pay for energy bills, improve energy efficiency, and repair or replace heating systems.
Minimize the presence of pests that can carry disease and spread allergens.
- Learn how to safely control pests at home (EPA).
- Learn how to identify signs of rodents and the diseases they spread (CDC).
Make sure drinking water is safe and healthy whether using a public water system or private well.
- Get information on testing your private well (DNR).
- Use the Be Well Informed Tool to help make sense of private well water laboratory results.
If your home feels damp of if you see mold, understand, prevent, and fix indoor mold problems.
- Flooding can increase the likelihood of mold in your home. Protecting Your Family from Floods, P-02077 (PDF) offers tips to prepare for and stay healthy after a flood.
- Learn ways to control moisture in your home (EPA).
Radon is a radioactive gas that can cause health problems if the levels are too high in our homes. Learn what it is, how to test for it, and radon mitigation.
- Connect with experts at Radon Information Centers across Wisconsin to answer questions and provide low-cost radon test kits.
- Is Your Home Radon Safe?, P-01963 (PDF) highlights key takeaways about radon.
Houses built before 1978 should be tested for lead paint.
- Learn how to stay safe from lead, including safe cleaning tips, how to hire lead-safe contractors, and the Lead-Safe Homes Program.
- The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) More Like HomeTM Repair and Renew Loan can be used for qualifying repairs such as the removal of lead paint.
Smoking can increase health problems, and secondhand smoke can harm others in your household.
- Get free help to quit commercial tobacco, including the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line.
- Need free, 24/7 treatment services or recovery support? Call 211 or 833-944-4673 to contact the Wisconsin Addiction Recovery helpline.
Severe weather can come with little warning and can pose serious health hazards.
- Learn about climate and health, including the effects of severe weather and tools to stay safe from extreme weather events.
- Visit Ready.gov to build an emergency kit and make a disaster plan.
Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that you can't see or smell. Installing and maintaining carbon monoxide and smoke detectors can prevent accidental carbon monoxide poisoning and keep your family safe from fires.
- Get safety tips on carbon monoxide and residential fires.
- Learn about smoke detectors (PDF) including how to install and maintain them.
Cleaning regularly can help prevent common allergens, which can worsen conditions like allergies or asthma.
- Get tips for lead-safe cleaning practices.
- Find out how air cleaners can improve indoor air quality.
- Cleaning Indoor Mold, P-02069B (PDF) provides steps to safely cleaning areas with mold.
- Take these steps to clean a home after a flood.
More resources
- A Healthy Home Checklist (PDF)—This checklist and accompanying illustration show some key action steps to take in each room and area of the home.
- Children and the Environment—Children are more vulnerable to environmental hazards than adults. Take these steps to keep children’s environments safe.
- Environmental Protection Agency’s Envirofacts—Retrieve information from multiple sources of Envirofacts' System Data for your area of interest.
Resources for professionals
- Creating the Healthiest Nation: Health and Housing Equity (PDF)—The American Public Health Association’s publication explaining the connection between housing and health equity.
- Healthy Homes Toolkit, P-03005 (PDF)—Provides sample messaging and resources to local organizations that promote National Healthy Homes Month each year.
If you have more questions, email dhsenvhealth@dhs.wisconsin.gov.