Indoor Air Quality Tools

Educating Stakeholders

A significant piece of effecting change in IAQ is educating stakeholders and decisionmakers within political, economic, and social institutions about potential opportunities for action. Whether you’re trying to address IAQ at the local, state, or federal level, this page offers several tools and resources to help build consensus and identify policies to improve IAQ.

Policy Positions

American Lung Association: Public Policy Position—Healthy Air 
This page on the American Lung Association website outlines their policy positions regarding healthy air, including their stances on indoor air quality, radon, and healthy air infrastructure. [url; ALA, 2022]

National Association of County and City Health Officials: Statement of Policy—Indoor Air Quality
This is a policy position on indoor air quality. It provides a list of policies and actions addressing indoor air quality issues that they support. [pdf; NACCHO, 2018]

Impact Reports

Leading the Way to Better Breathing: Managed Care Organizations and Asthma Home Visiting Services in California 
Published by Regional Asthma Management and Prevention, Leading the Way to Better Breathing highlights the benefits of asthma home visiting services, from their ability to achieve triple-aim goals to supporting quality improvement initiatives to addressing more “upstream” health determinants. The tool also explains opportunities that managed care organizations can take advantage of to make support for asthma home visiting services as easier and more efficient, including some best-practice examples from the field. [pdf, RAMP, 2019]

Emergencies and IAQ 
This EPA webpage provides an overview of the impacts of various emergency scenarios on IAQ and health and compiles links to guidance and tools for each scenario. The resources are available in English and nine additional languages. [url; EPA]

Literature Review on the Impacts of Residential Combustion: Final Report 
This report from the American Lung Association and ICF discusses the health and environmental impacts of indoor residential combustion, including those of methane gas appliances, wood-burning stoves, and fireplaces. [url; ALA, 2022]

Advancing City-Level Healthy Housing: Policies, Programs and Practices in Asthma and Lead—Strategies for Progress 
The National League of Cities published this report, authored by the George Washington University School of Public Health, highlighting the critical role of city leadership tools in developing successful approaches to healthy housing, such as proactive rental inspection and rent withholding mechanisms. The report also outlines common challenges faced by local healthy housing efforts and key strategies to overcome and advance them. [pdf; NLC, 2020]

Asthma Capitals 2022: The Most Challenging Places to Live with Asthma
This report from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America raises awareness about the nationwide impacts of asthma. Asthma Capitals ranks the 100 largest cities according to critical health outcomes, including asthma prevalence, emergency department visits due to asthma, and asthma mortality and examines other risk factors influencing health outcomes. [pdf; AAFA, 2022]

Policy Development

Environmental Health State Bill Tracking Database
The National Conference of State Legislatures tracks environmental health bills that have been introduced across the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia. Information on current bills is updated each Tuesday, and legislation can be searched back to 2009. This tool can help stakeholders gain a better understanding of a state’s current policies around healthy housing and provide examples of legislation in other localities. [url; NCSL, 2022]

Air Quality Improvement: Guide for Local Governments 
Published by the National Association of Counties (NACo), the only national organization representing county governments in the U.S., this guide is designed for local governments to craft and implement policies that improve air quality. Their framework is drawn from an analysis of numerous local governments across the U.S. and their efforts to improve air quality. It highlights air awareness programs, woodstove programs, public transportation, commuter benefits programs, neighborhood connectivity, energy efficiency, tree-planting programs, infill redevelopment, greenways and open spaces, air monitoring, and air emergencies, air quality partnerships, and provides an air quality glossary. [pdf; NACo, 2007]

Message Guide: Advancing Health and Equity Through Housing 
This guide is for anyone working to build support within city government, among key stakeholders, and across the public for healthy housing policies as part of a comprehensive housing strategy. It helps you make the case for healthy housing in general, with messages to customize based on your city’s priority issues, decision-making structure, and specific policy goals. [pdf; NCL, 2021]

Healthy Homes Manual: Smoke-Free Policies in Multiunit Housing 
Published by the Healthy Homes and Lead Poisoning Prevention Branch of the National Center for Environmental Health’s Division of Emergency and Environmental Health Services, Smoke-Free Policies in Multiunit Housing is intended to frame issues and provide guidance for state and local healthy homes programs working to reduce secondhand smoke exposure in multiunit housing. Included in the manual are best practices, field-tested strategies, recommendations, and tools, drawn from peer-reviewed research and practitioner interviews. While readers may choose from among the described strategies, it’s important to note that the strategies are interconnected and mutually supportive. [url; CDC, 2011]

Advocacy Action Guide: A Toolkit for Strategic Policy Advocacy Campaigns  
Published jointly by Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Consumers International, this advocacy action guide provides tools for policy advocacy campaigns. The guide covers a broad range of topics, such as the specific elements of a policy advocacy campaign, identifying clear policy objectives, and concluding a campaign. [pdf; Tobacco-Free Kids]

Advocacy in Action
National Council of Nonprofits’ page contains resources relating to advocacy skills and lessons learned. It focuses on nonprofit advocacy as an effective tool in advancing missions, improving lives, and strengthening communities. These resources are aimed to inspire you towards everyday advocacy. [url; NCN]

Building Community Resilience Policy and Advocacy Guide
This guide is intended to assist readers in becoming effective policy advocates and educators, offering guidance to help identify and act on policy opportunities. While it focuses on adverse childhood events (ACEs), the frameworks and guidelines can also be applied to indoor air quality efforts. [pdf; BCR, 2018]

Healthy Planning Guide 
Published by the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative and ChangeLab Solutions, Healthy Planning Guide was intended to help public health and planning departments collaborate on strategies to promote healthier communities. Each page links health risks to aspects of the built environment, outlining ways to ensure that neighborhoods are designed to support health equity and community well-being. [pdf; BARHII/CLS, 2009]

The Health and Housing Starter Kit 
ChangeLab Solutions’ Health and Housing Starter Kit guides local institutions taking their initial actions toward creating bold, innovative health and housing initiatives. Included in the kit are case studies for institutions that have worked on health and housing initiatives for more than a decade. Another feature, “Building Blocks,” explores a variety of strategies and offers advice for forming partnerships with communities and other institutions, developing indicators to understand and evaluate the efforts, and crafting messages to build support. [url/pdf; CLS, 2018]

A Guide to Proactive Rental Inspections
ChangeLab Solutions’ guide outlines the benefits to both tenants and property owners of proactive rental inspections, challenges and opportunities in program design, and strategies for successful adoption. [pdf; CLS, 2022]

Action Plans

Reflections on the National Radon Action Plan’s (NRAP) Progress 2015-2020 
Published by Radon Leaders, a coterie of experts on the topic, this progress report reflects on the accomplishments of the National Radon Action Plan (NRAP) between 2015 and 2020. The report details examples of how the NRAP has been effective in building radon testing and reduction into systemic building construction and maintenance processes. It also provides examples of how radon testing has become more commonplace in healthy home standards, despite the continuing need for implementing tax incentive strategies. In addition, the report notes the increased prevalence of certification requirements for radon measurement and mitigation workers. Finally, the report also notes how awareness of the risk that radon poses has grown; leaders now work across sectors and at different levels of government to strengthen this awareness. [pdf; Radon Leaders, 2020]

Current ANSI/AARST National Radon Consensus Standards 
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and several other federal and state agencies use the ANSI/AARST national consensus standards. National consensus standards are available for all types of buildings. [url; AARST, 2019]

 

Latest page update: March 8, 2023.