‘Healthy Homes’ course offered at LSU AgCenter’s LaHouse June 2-3

Diane Scimeca, Merrill, Thomas A.

News Release Distributed 05/27/09

The LSU AgCenter will offer a course on “Essentials for Healthy Homes Practitioners” June 2-3 at its Louisiana House Home and Landscape Resource Center.

Organizers say the course is designed for any professional who provides health or home inspection services. Those with five-years of experience or more also can take a certification exam at the conclusion of the two-day course to be credentialed by the National Environmental Health Association as a “Healthy Homes Practitioner.”

“The training will help participants understand the connection between health and housing and how to take a holistic approach to identify and resolve problems that threaten the health and well-being of residents,” said Diane Scimeca, healthy homes coordinator at the LSU AgCenter’s LaHouse Resource Center. “Everyone from a public health nurse visiting a client to an environmental health professional doing a rodent inspection will gain insight into how housing and health are related and actions they can take to improve the health of their clients.”

The fee for the two-day course is $190 per person and includes lunch and parking. There is an additional fee of $75 for those who take the credentialing exam the final day of the course. (After that time, the fee is $150 for the exam.)

“This course brings together professionals with a variety of perspectives and experiences in a series of exercises – keeping the training lively and engaging,” Scimeca said. “The training complements hazard-specific training in lead-based paint, radon, mold, pests and asbestos. It identifies root causes of health problems in a home and links them to seven principles of healthy housing.”

The course runs from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. June 2 and from 8 a.m. until 4:15 p.m. June 3. For those taking the exam after the course, it should conclude by 6:30 p.m. June 3.

The LaHouse Resource Center is located on Gourrier Avenue on the LSU campus in Baton Rouge (between Nicholson Drive and River Road near the new Alex Box Stadium).

Known as LaHouse, for short, the LSU AgCenter’s Louisiana House Home and Landscape Resource Center is designed as a showcase for safer, stronger and smarter building techniques. Among its purposes is educating homeowners, home buyers and the building industry on ways to create homes that are built for the state’s hot-humid climate, are energy efficient, resist damage from hurricanes and termites and minimize adverse effects on the environment.

To learn more about the course or to register, contact Scimeca at 225-931-1043 or dscimeca@agcenter.lsu.edu. Additional details on the course and the LSU AgCenter’s LaHouse Resource Center can be found at www.lsuagcenter.com/lahouse. You also can visit that site for details on another event at LaHouse, “Hurricanes, Homes and Yards,” which is set for June 13 and is open to the public.

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Contact: Diane Scimeca
Writer: Tom Merrill

5/27/2009 9:01:04 PM
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