GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — During the coronavirus pandemic, some states including Michigan have told people to stay home because that is where they will be the safest.
Leaders from the Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan know that there are a lot of hazards in a home that can put your health at risk. Usually, they'd be able to make home visits. That's no longer the case.
"We cannot go into peoples’ homes. We shouldn’t be," said Healthy Homes Executive Director Paul Haan. "So we’ve got reach out to people via electronic means. To be quite frank, it’s a hard pivot."
The coalition is getting creative. They plan to put information out on their social media sites and their website. That includes one instructional video per day on their Facebook page, covering a variety of topics. Those videos will begin rolling out on Thursday, March 26.
"One of our concerns is certainly going to be asthma. With kids confined to the same air quality day in and day out, if the home has poor air quality and that’s a challenge for that child, now is a time when we’re going to really wrestle with that," Haan said.
"So whether that’s changing furnace filters or making sure everything is dry, or pests in the home. Those are the things that we really need to get on top of if we’re going to be spending time at home."
Haan also says with the coronavirus being a concern right now, it's a good idea to stay home as much as possible and keeping the virus from following you home when you do have to make essential trips.
"This is a lot like the work we do with pests. Cockroaches are hitchhikers. Bed bugs are hitchhikers. So is this coronavirus. So going outside of the home and allowing it to hitchhike back to your home is a challenge.
"If people are worried about it getting into the home, having some basic household bleach on hand is an easy cost-effective way to make a solution that can be used to disinfect the home," he says.
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