Your home affects your health
As we plunge into the notorious Canberra winter, consider this: cold weather contributes to 6.5% of deaths in our wide brown land!
A newly published study in the medical journal The Lancet concludes that more people die from the effects of cold in Australia than in Sweden (only 3.9%) where temperatures often drop to -20 degrees Celsius in winter.
Constant exposure to low temperatures increases blood pressure and has other negative effects on our health which can eventually be fatal. Heating poorly insulated homes to a liveable condition often becomes unaffordable for low-income and vulnerable Australians, resulting in them living in chronically cold conditions that are seriously detrimental to their health in the long term.
Many studies have shown that improving the energy efficiency and thermal comfort of a home has positive impacts on your physical and mental health… as well as your energy bills! At Light House Architecture & Science we know that well-designed and built homes are happy, healthy homes.
In Australia, cold weather claims more lives than hot weather. The same study concluded that heat contributed to only 0.5 per cent of deaths. How can the “sunburned country”, a land known for its asphalt-melting heatwaves, claim more people through cold than heat?
Nick Roberts is a campaigns director at Environment Victoria, and we encourage you to read his article on this topic Australian houses are just glorified tents in winter.