Course Details
Is Your Home Making You Sick?
22 Feb 2014
Personal Interest
Other
Victoria University Community Continuing Education
This course is only offered in Wellington
Full Day
Sat 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sat 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
$90.00
Including GST
Including GST
Overview:
We live in times when cancer, allergies and many new diseases are increasingly becoming part of our experience. While we have been told how to change our diet and lifestyle to improve our prognosis, little information exists on how our own homes could be contributing to these health problems.
Learn how to recognise the most common risks in your home and what simple and affordable strategies can help to reduce or eliminate them.
Target audience:
This course will appeal to anyone who is interested in healthy living.
Learning objectives:
By the end of this course, participants will have gained:
•an understanding of the adverse effects building and furnishing materials can have on human health
•an appreciation of the limitations of the current legislative processes regulating the use of building and furnishing materials and the importance of individual responsibility
•knowledge of the common hiding places for many health-risk materials
•knowledge of how to evaluate their homes for health risks and make a simple plan of action to reduce or eliminate these risks.
Course outline:
Introduction (10am – 11am): Well-known examples of hazardous materials commonly used in homes. Unrecognised risks, right in front of our eyes. Importance of precautionary principle. Just as sustainability is changing the way we think about the impact our actions have on the natural environment, we have to start changing the way we think about indoor home environments.
Overview (11am – 3pm) (with an hour’s break for lunch): Building and furnishing materials commonly found in homes and that are recognised as health risks, grouped by material or substance. These materials include: MDF, particleboard, vinyl, PVC, fire-retardants, solvent-based versus water-based paints and varnishes and healthier alternatives to all of these.
Brief overviews for each material and/or substance: why they are used and what for; how and why are they unhealthy for humans; how regulated their use is; where to check for them in your home; what you can do if they are present in your home; how to avoid them when buying new.
Workshop discussion (3–5pm): Examples from homes on where the risks could be and what the simple and affordable ways are of reducing them.
Course format:
This one-day course is run on a Saturday from 10am to 5pm with an hour’s break for lunch. It involves lecture presentations and an interactive workshop session.
Tea and coffee will be provided, but you will need to bring or buy your own lunch.
Materials required:
Bring a sketch plan and photos of your home (digital photos are fine, as long as you bring something to show them on). Bring writing and drawing tools: paper, pencils, pens. (Digital media is fine, as long as two people can easily draw on the same drawing.)
We live in times when cancer, allergies and many new diseases are increasingly becoming part of our experience. While we have been told how to change our diet and lifestyle to improve our prognosis, little information exists on how our own homes could be contributing to these health problems.
Learn how to recognise the most common risks in your home and what simple and affordable strategies can help to reduce or eliminate them.
Target audience:
This course will appeal to anyone who is interested in healthy living.
Learning objectives:
By the end of this course, participants will have gained:
•an understanding of the adverse effects building and furnishing materials can have on human health
•an appreciation of the limitations of the current legislative processes regulating the use of building and furnishing materials and the importance of individual responsibility
•knowledge of the common hiding places for many health-risk materials
•knowledge of how to evaluate their homes for health risks and make a simple plan of action to reduce or eliminate these risks.
Course outline:
Introduction (10am – 11am): Well-known examples of hazardous materials commonly used in homes. Unrecognised risks, right in front of our eyes. Importance of precautionary principle. Just as sustainability is changing the way we think about the impact our actions have on the natural environment, we have to start changing the way we think about indoor home environments.
Overview (11am – 3pm) (with an hour’s break for lunch): Building and furnishing materials commonly found in homes and that are recognised as health risks, grouped by material or substance. These materials include: MDF, particleboard, vinyl, PVC, fire-retardants, solvent-based versus water-based paints and varnishes and healthier alternatives to all of these.
Brief overviews for each material and/or substance: why they are used and what for; how and why are they unhealthy for humans; how regulated their use is; where to check for them in your home; what you can do if they are present in your home; how to avoid them when buying new.
Workshop discussion (3–5pm): Examples from homes on where the risks could be and what the simple and affordable ways are of reducing them.
Course format:
This one-day course is run on a Saturday from 10am to 5pm with an hour’s break for lunch. It involves lecture presentations and an interactive workshop session.
Tea and coffee will be provided, but you will need to bring or buy your own lunch.
Materials required:
Bring a sketch plan and photos of your home (digital photos are fine, as long as you bring something to show them on). Bring writing and drawing tools: paper, pencils, pens. (Digital media is fine, as long as two people can easily draw on the same drawing.)
Teacher:
Emina Petrovic is a PhD candidate in architecture at Victoria University, where she investigated popular perceptions of building and furnishing materials on people’s health. She has taught many courses in architecture and design at Victoria University over the past decade.
Emina Petrovic is a PhD candidate in architecture at Victoria University, where she investigated popular perceptions of building and furnishing materials on people’s health. She has taught many courses in architecture and design at Victoria University over the past decade.