As a horrified public has seen in Chile and Haiti, most of the hundreds or thousands of victims were killed or left homeless because of poor construction materials and building methods.
While there is almost no overcrowding or poor-quality building materials in high-income households, these problems affect 16%% of urban poor households (Bouillon 2012).
As demonstrated by two recent earthquakes (1980, Terceira; 1998, Faial), the principal damage was related to one or more of these factors: (1) unsafe location of structures near faults; (2) unstable foundation soils; (3) poor quality of building materials and construction methods; (4) disregard of building codes; and (5) lack of building maintenance.
In industrialized countries where the provision of basic services is likely to be adequate, hazards may include poor housing design or use of unhealthy building materials; poor heating or ventilation systems encouraging high loads of bioaerosols and triggering or inducing chronic diseases such as asthma; and exposure to radon or electromagnetic radiation (Pronczuk and Surdu 2008).
Poor construction material and practices are often blamed for many of the building collapses in India.
At all hours, men and women sit scowling at laptops, their cell phones resting on cigarette-scarred tables beside cold cups of cappuccino, plotting how to get low-cost building materials to poor homeowners, start a Lower Nine farmer's market, sue the police, or bring the city's musicians back from exile.
Opposition politicians say the government exaggerates the numbers and is hampered by poor organization and shortages of basic building materials.
In schools, inadequate ventilation, use of toxic pesticides and cleaners, offgassing from building materials and furnishings, and poor maintenance should be remediated to avoid increases in asthma, allergies, and other respiratory diseases.
Hygrothermal loads in building structures may lead to degradation failure of building materials, as well as to poor indoor air quality.
Research into technical options for providing stronger building materials in areas where soils are poor in brick moulding.
