Activities

WHO/Europe carries out a variety of activities to promote healthy indoor settings and built environments, such as stimulating the generation and dissemination of valuable knowledge, evaluating health risks from inadequate housing and urban conditions and providing advice on technical interventions and policy options. Major target groups are ministry officials and national and local policy-makers in the areas of housing, health, environment and social affairs as well as interested experts, housing practitioners and nongovernmental organizations.

Priority work addresses:

  • thermal comfort and energy issues;
  • health inequalities related to housing and urban conditions; and
  • the study of environmental risks from neighbourhood and urban environments (e.g. noise and air pollution, green spaces, transport and physical activity, public safety).

Further activities include a review of multiple exposures occurring indoors, such as in homes and institutionalized settings, and support to the WHO global project on the update of housing and health guidelines through technical contributions and as member of the project secretariat. WHO/Europe’s work on housing and urban environments also informs the Environmental Health Information System (ENHIS). 

Thermal comfort and energy

WHO studies the health impact of energy efficiency policies and of the health co-benefits of climate change mitigation activities in the urban environment, which are most often targeted at housing, transport and energy generation.
WHO project on housing and health guidelines

The Large Analysis and Review of European housing and health Status (LARES) project

The LARES survey undertaken in eight European cities identified main housing risk factors
Health effects of urban environments

Housing and urban inequalities

Socioeconomic status affects the levels of exposure to housing-related and urban risks to health