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Despite significant evidence that housing quality plays a key role in the overall health of the population, health risks that originate at home have failed to garner direct policy attention or intervention commensurate with their impact. Drawing on the sociology of social problems, we identify how causal and political responsibility for risks in the United States context is complicated when these environmental health risks are embedded in private homes. We argue that changing how home health is addressed by health and building practitioners requires a reconceptualization of home health whereby the multiple responsible parties and sources of exposure become leverage points for future research and interventions. This reframing includes identifying housing as an arena of health, representing a class of risks tied to place. We also contend that health is an essential element of homes as systems and must be embedded in how those in building science, construction, property management, and code design approach housing. Finally, we suggest the need for specialists to navigate home health issues, drawing on the hospitalist model of health provision. These proposals illustrate multiple points at which residents, researchers, and health and building professionals may intervene and home health risks can be addressed.
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The Social Risks of Science
Abstract Many instances of scientific research impose risks, not just on participants and scientists but also on third parties. This class ofsocial risksunifies a range of problems previously treated as distinct phenomena, including so‐called bystander risks, biosafety concerns arising from gain‐of‐function research, the misuse of the results of dual‐use research, and the harm caused by inductive risks. The standard approach to these problems has been to extend two familiar principles from human subjects research regulations—a favorable risk‐benefit ratio and informed consent. We argue, however, that these moral principles will be difficult to satisfy in the context of widely distributed social risks about which affected parties may reasonably disagree. We propose that framing these risks as political rather than moral problems may offer another way. By borrowing lessons from political philosophy, we propose a framework that unifies our discussion of social risks and the possible solutions to them.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1835366
- PAR ID:
- 10219360
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Hastings Center Report
- Volume:
- 50
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 0093-0334
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 27-38
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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