20 | May 2019
million reported signs of rodent or cockroach. From the AHS
web site, you can break these numbers down further and
see, for example, when divided by income, that pest infesta-
tion exists on a fairly even distribution of households. Pests
are not a low-income problem, as is all too often assumed.
Over 10 million households reported moisture leaks
from outside the structure, and over 10 million from inside.
Less than 4 million reported evidence of mold somewhere
in the home. I want to point out how many homes report-
ed moisture leaks and signs of mold, signs of rodents, and
structural deficiencies like loose stairs and railings.
The 2015 AHS asked questions for the first time relat-
ed to many of the common home environmental hazards in
table 1, but there are many hazards that are not included—
and they would be a challenge to include. For example,
some of the questions are related to the sources of certain,
but not all, inhalant allergens found in homes.
Inhalant allergens are a byproduct of many biological or-
Table 2 is a summary of some of the results from the
most recent AHS (conducted in 2015). The AHS indicates
there are an estimated 118,290,000 homes in the US. From
the AHS database (found here: https://www.census.gov/
programs-surveys/ahs/) one can query the data by an ar-
ray of demographic parameters. From the summary data
you can see basic information as well as some interesting
categories that I find fascinating to review. I'll let readers
analyze the tables for themselves but want to point out that
for the first time since the Census has performed the AHS,
there is now a section on health and safety in homes.
This section includes survey questions about the pres-
ence of mold or musty odors, radon testing, an expanded
list of pest observations, safety of staircases, smoking and
secondhand smoke, and drinking water quality. Just a few
interesting examples:
Of the 118 million homes in the US, only a few (<300,000)
reported severely inadequate plumbing. But more than 13
