Environmental regulation in the United States has been analogized to the architecture of shacks comprised of overlapping boards and tin.1 One such “board” is the Clean Air Act (“CAA”), which regulates air pollution across the country.2 Pursuant to the CAA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) has established a regulatory framework that sets National Ambient Air Quality Standards (“NAAQS”) for “criteria” air pollutants: carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particle pollution, and sulfur dioxide.3 Criteria air pollutants, as well as all other sources of outdoor air pollution, not only affect the air we breathe outdoors; they affect our Indoor Air Quality (“IAQ”), seeping into homes, schools, and workplaces via ventilation systems, building materials, and openings in windows and doors.4 The EPA is responsible for regulating, or setting standards for, many of the pollutants that impact IAQ, such as radon, pesticides, and asbestos, to name a few.5
While these standards and regulations certainly help to identify and mitigate specific sources of poor IAQ, the EPA has fallen short of creating a sweeping regulatory framework for IAQ, as it has done with outdoor air quality. Moreover, this piecemeal regulation has allowed significant sources of poor IAQ, such as “airborne mold contaminants,” to fall through the cracks of oversight.6 Environmental scholarship has increasingly demonstrated the need for regulation of poor IAQ, which arises from “fuel-burning combustion appliances,” tobacco, building materials such as deteriorated asbestos-containing insulation, cleaning products, central heating and cooling systems, excessive moisture, and outdoor air pollution.7 Establishing standards for sources of poor IAQ is especially important in housing, in which air pollution can be of concentrations two to five times that of outdoor air pollution.8 In public housing, sources of poor air quality include, for example, old HVAC systems, busy roadways, and mold.9 The mitigation of poor IAQ in public housing is a crucial environmental justice (“EJ”) issue, given the close relationship between race, income, and exposure to environmental hazards in the home.10
This article analyzes the piecemeal regulation of, and guidance for, IAQ, particularly in public housing. In recognizing the role that states can play in explicitly regulating IAQ, this article examines the absence of explicit regulation of IAQ in public housing in Massachusetts and provides recommendations for reform. That Massachusetts does not currently properly address poor IAQ in housing is an obvious defect on the Commonwealth’s record, as it is one of the few states with EJ statutes, policies, programs, and initiatives in place to confront the racialized impacts of environmental harms.11 Given the lack of federal or state laws explicitly regulating IAQ, especially concerning air quality in public housing, I argue that laws at either (or both) the state and federal level must enumerate all sources of poor IAQ, establish acceptable levels of exposure to such sources, and comprehensively regulate IAQ, especially in public housing.
A. Relationship Between IAQ and Public Housing
In the United States, exposure to environmental harms, such as poor IAQ, is correlated with race and residence in federally-assisted housing.12 Outdoor and indoor pollution “worsen indoor air quality in multifamily rental housing.”13 Low-income Black and Latinx children are two and two and one-half times more likely, respectively, to “live near industrial facilities that emit hazardous chemicals” than white children living above the poverty line.14 More than 9,000 federally subsidized housing developments are located within one mile of a Superfund site.15
Public housing is more likely to be of older housing stock, have antiquated HVAC systems, and be closer to busy roadways.16 In Boston, the public housing stock also has documented sources of indoor air pollution, including mold, pest infestations, tobacco smoke, poor insulation, insufficient ventilation, water leaks, and lead.17 These factors put public housing residents at risk of developing asthma, skin ailments, strokes, heart disease, and cancer.18
A 2011–2014 study of the Old Colony Homes, a development of the Boston Housing Authority (“BHA”), revealed stark differences in the IAQ of the 840-unit Old Colony public housing community built in 1941 and redeveloped new units built with “smoke-free housing policies, improved ventilation, and tight building envelopes.”19 Data collected between 2012 and 2013 conveyed that:
Concentrations of pollutants in BHA’s new housing units were 93 percent lower for nicotine, 65 percent lower for nitrogen oxide, and 57 percent lower for particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter than in the conventional units . . . [R]esidents in the [new] healthy units filed fewer reports of pests and mold and experienced 47 percent fewer symptoms of sick building syndrome.20
In addition to revealing the close relationship between housing and health, the study inspired the BHA to implement the “healthy housing features and practices” in other developments.21 However, these efforts alone are insufficient to address poor IAQ. Rather, a multifaceted approach that includes regulations and monitoring by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is also required.
B. Federal Regulation of IAQ in the United States
The EPA does not explicitly set federal IAQ standards.22 Rather, the federal government indirectly addresses poor IAQ through a series of overlapping regulations. For example, the EPA’s NAAQS regulate outdoor air quality;23 accordingly, indoor air quality is also regulated. Additionally, the National Volatile Organic Compound Emission Standards for Consumer Products regulates the emissions of volatile organic compounds from consumer products, such as cleaning products, which affect IAQ.24 Finally, the EPA regulates the management and abatement of asbestos-containing materials, a source of poor IAQ in residential buildings and public schools, by establishing best practices for handling asbestos during demolitions and renovations of structures and requiring local education agencies to inspect asbestos-containing materials and create management plans to avoid health hazards.25 But while the EPA has collected long-term data on the IAQ impacts of radon and serum cotinine, which is a measure of one’s exposure to tobacco smoke, it has not done so for other indoor air pollutants like asbestos, carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, indoor particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds.26
In addition, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) provides standards for ventilation and some air pollutants associated with poor IAQ.27 For example, OSHA has detailed standards concerning worker exposure to asbestos, a source of poor IAQ that has no “safe” level of exposure.28 OSHA’s asbestos standards mandate that employers are required to reduce any worker exposure to asbestos, such as by providing personal protective equipment, and that where there is exposure, to reduce airborne levels and medically monitor workers.29 Unfortunately, OSHA does not set standards for all sources of poor IAQ.30 Rather, OSHA only expects that employers “should be reasonably aware of the possible sources of poor air quality.”31 Thus, much of the burden of identifying and managing most hazardous sources of poor IAQ falls on workers themselves. OSHA explains that workers who believe they are endangered by poor IAQ at their workplace should ask their employers to check their workplace’s ventilation, heating, and cooling systems and monitor any related health symptoms.32 As relief, workers may contact an OSHA Office to file a complaint or may request a Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).33
Some agency actions that help mitigate poor IAQ are merely voluntary. For example, pursuant to the Ambient Air Monitoring Reference and Equivalent Methods, the EPA issues guidelines for monitoring air quality, including indoor air quality.34 In 1999, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) launched its Healthy Homes Initiative to “reduce housing-related health hazards” through the provision of grants to local housing authorities.35 While some key programs are mandatory, such as HUD’s ban on tobacco use on public housing property and its management of lead in building materials,36 others, such as those to address mold in HUD-funded housing, are optional, available only if state and local governments apply for grants to obtain the requisite funding to implement the programs.37 Moreover, local housing authorities may, but are not required to, apply for HUD funding to update or install equipment to improve IAQ, such as bathroom fans, kitchen range hoods, and electric stoves.38
The BHA has implemented several crucial healthy homes initiatives, such as those to reduce asthma triggers, control exposure to pesticides, manage pest infestations, prohibit smoking of tobacco in residences and on public housing property within 25 feet of the premises, and more.39 Notably, there is no evidence that the BHA has elected to participate in HUD’s initiatives relating to mold or HVAC improvements.40 However, in January 2024, Mayor Wu and the BHA announced that the Franklin Field Apartments, a public housing development in Dorchester, was selected for National Grid’s Networked Geothermal Demonstration Program to switch its energy source from gas to electric.41 Given the high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide, risk of exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and higher rates of asthma in children associated with gas appliances in homes,42 this effort is an important step in addressing IAQ in public housing in Massachusetts.
C. State Regulation and Guidance of IAQ
State governments may be better primed to monitor and address poor IAQ. State governments may pass their own laws to identify and manage sources of poor IAQ. Two states, California and New Jersey, have their own IAQ standards.43 States may also implement their own IAQ guidelines without federal approval.44 However, guidelines, as opposed to standards, are not mandatory and are thus not legally enforceable.45 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts does not explicitly regulate IAQ.46 Rather, several state agencies have overlapping guidelines that affect IAQ. Importantly, these guidelines do not specifically address poor IAQ in public housing.
For example, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (“MDPH”) provides guidelines to assess and address radon in schools, childcare centers, and homes.47 MDPH also has guidance on mold in public schools and other public buildings, urging officials to ensure windows and doors are weathertight and that HVAC systems are up to date.48 Relatedly, the Bureau of Climate and Environmental Health within MDPH releases air quality reports for public buildings in Massachusetts.49 However, these reports do not measure IAQ in public housing.50
In addition, the Massachusetts General Laws identify mold, a source of poor IAQ, as a public health nuisance subject to enforcement action or removal by the Board of Health.51 Under the Massachusetts Sanitary Code, landlords are responsible for “maintain[ing] all building and structural elements,” which includes ensuring that units are “free from . . . mold.”52 Renters whose apartment conditions violate the above provisions of the “warranty of habitability” may use that finding to bring claims for monetary damages against their landlords,53 withhold or deduct their rent,54 or fight an eviction action brought against them.55 Thus, Massachusetts law provides tenants with an enforcement mechanism to indirectly force landlords, including the BHA, to mitigate poor IAQ. However, tenants are not entitled to counsel when bringing an affirmative warranty of habitability claim, forcing them to hire an attorney.56 Tenants’ only other recourse is to raise such an argument during eviction proceedings initiated against them by their landlord. However, with no right to counsel in housing court, tenants are at a severe disadvantage for remaining in their housing and enforcing their habitability rights.57
As demonstrated above, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has provided helpful guidance for understanding and mitigating some sources of poor IAQ. In addition, the Commonwealth has given tenants affected by poor IAQ the right to relief against their landlords.58 Yet, given the scarcity of free and affordable legal support available to Massachusetts tenants, there is little opportunity to use the courts to enforce such rights. This inequity one of the final steps needed to address this issue. Before even reaching enforcement, the Commonwealth must rectify its failures by identifying the specific IAQ harms faced by public housing residents, partnering with health officials and public housing residents to mitigate risk factors in the near term, and setting mandatory state standards to remove sources of harm in the future. The following recommendations address the vacuum left by current federal and state IAQ schemes.
D. Recommendations
State governments may be best primed to address poor IAQ because they can pass laws and implement guidelines without federal approval.59 In Massachusetts, implementing IAQ guidelines or passing IAQ legislation to address poor IAQ in public housing requires a multi-pronged approach. This article recommends four approaches that advocates, local housing authorities, and the Massachusetts state and local governments can take.
First, Massachusetts lawmakers should partner with community organizations to gather information as to the sources and consequences of poor IAQ amongst public housing residents. Second, advocates should create broad coalitions to support, and the Massachusetts Legislature should pass, new legislation for the regulation of IAQ, such as the 2021 Bill H.2230, which urges the improvement of “outdoor and indoor air quality for communities burdened by transportation pollution.”60 Such legislation may also model the Model State Indoor Air Quality Act, which was created by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.61 Just as important, the Massachusetts Legislature should simultaneously pass laws implementing a right to counsel for all housing court cases and for “shelter” cases in civil court, so that tenants may exercise their right to safe IAQ and receive compensation for harms already suffered. Third, the BHA and other local housing authorities in Massachusetts should participate in HUD’s Healthy Homes Initiative to upgrade ventilation, heating and cooling, maintenance, and pest control systems in public housing developments.62 Finally, legal advocates should rely on provisions of the CAA, as well as local regulations, when bringing litigation or engaging in administrative advocacy to enforce the rights of public housing residents to superior IAQ.63
E. Conclusion
Poor IAQ is an EJ issue that must be regulated and mitigated at both the federal and state level. As this article reveals, overlapping federal air quality and workplace safety standards identify sources of poor IAQ, but only set standards of appropriate exposure to some of them. Federal HUD programs have begun to tackle poor IAQ in public housing, but many notable “healthy homes initiatives” are voluntary, rather than mandatory. Given this piecemeal approach at the federal level, state governments, which can provide guidance on poor IAQ without federal approval and set their own IAQ standards, may be better situated to address poor IAQ.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has certainly identified sources of poor IAQ and provided importance guidance concerning IAQ in schools and other public buildings. Moreover, local housing authorities like the BHA have participated in healthy homes initiatives and pursued initiatives of their own to combat sources of poor IAQ, such as gas appliances. However, the Commonwealth has fallen short of studying, monitoring, and comprehensively addressing poor IAQ in public housing, a crucial step in its implementation of EJ policies. And while Massachusetts law provides causes of action to tenants who suffer from poor IAQ against their landlords, the absence of a civil right to counsel means that this right cannot be exercised freely. Instead, tenants facing eviction and have access to legal counsel, or who are informed of their rights, can raise warranty of habitability claims as defenses and counterclaims.
To better address and mitigate poor IAQ, particularly in public housing, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should follow the recommendations of this article, namely, to gather information as to the sources and effects of poor IAQ in public housing; pass legislation to set standards for IAQ in housing and provide tenants with the right to counsel to enforce those standards; and finally, mandate that local housing authorities to participate in HUD’s Healthy Homes Initiatives and their own programs to address and mitigate the sources of poor IAQ identified in this article.
*Alida Pitcher-Murray, Juris Doctor, 2024, Northeastern University School of Law.
1Ronald Outen, Environmental Pollution Laws and the Architecture of Tobacco Road, in NAT’L RESEARCH COUNCIL, MULTIMEDIA APPROACHES TO POLLUTION CONTROL: SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS 139 (1987).
242 U.S.C. §§ 7401-7671q (2018).
3Id. at §§ 7408-7409; see generally 40 C.F.R. § 50 (2024).
4Introduction to Indoor Air Quality, U.S. ENV’T PROT. AGENCY (Jan. 3, 2024), https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/introduction-indoor-air-quality.
5Id.; RADON STANDARDS OF PRACTICE, U.S. ENV’T PROT. AGENCY (Nov. 20, 2024), https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/radon/radon-standards-practice_.html#current; 40 C.F.R. §§ 9, 721, 763E, 763G, 763I, 61M (2024); 40 C.F.R. § 63.1360 subpt. MMM (2024).
6Regulatory and Guidance Information by Topic: Air, U.S. ENV’T PROT. AGENCY (May 23, 2024), https://www.epa.gov/regulatory-information-topic/regulatory-and-guidance-information-topic-air#:~:text=Indoor%20Air%20Quality%3A%20EPA%20does,other%20indoor%20air%20quality%20issues; Nina Prescott et al., How IAQ Guidelines Are Developed, in THE NEED FOR US INDOOR AIR QUALITY GUIDELINES, ROCKY MOUNTAIN INST. (Oct. 11, 2023), https://rmi.org/the-need-for-us-indoor-air-quality-guidelines/.
7Indoor Air Pollution and Health, U.S. ENV’T PROT. AGENCY (Jan. 3, 2024), https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/introduction-indoor-air-quality.
8Nina Prescott et al., Introduction, in THE NEED FOR US INDOOR AIR QUALITY GUIDELINES, ROCKY MOUNTAIN INST. (Oct. 11, 2023), https://rmi.org/the-need-for-us-indoor-air-quality-guidelines/.
9Robin Smyton, Study to investigate indoor air quality in affordable housing near busy roadways, TUFTS NOW (Jan. 23, 2019), https://now.tufts.edu/2019/01/23/study-investigate-indoor-air-quality-affordable-housing-near-busy-roadways; Samiya A Bashir, Home is Where the Harm Is: Inadequate Housing as a Public Health Crisis, 92 AM. J. PUBLIC HEALTH 733 (2002); Prescott et al., supra note 8.
10Renee Skelton & Vernice Miller, The Environmental Justice Movement, NRDC (Mar. 17, 2016), https://www.nrdc.org/stories/environmental-justice-movement; Erin Blakemore, Historic redlining linked to worse cardiovascular health for veterans, WASH. POST (July 16, 2023), https://wapo.st/3XSdikO (“Formerly redlined neighborhoods have worse air quality, for example, and higher noise levels — both of which have been linked to adverse health outcomes.”); Emily Coffrey et al., POISONOUS HOMES: THE FIGHT FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN FEDERALLY ASSISTED HOUSING, SHRIVER CTR. ON POVERTY L. & EARTH JUST. (2020).
11See MASS. GEN. LAWS ch. 30, §§ 61-621 (2024); An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy, ch. 8, 2021 MASS. ACTS (in relevant part, requiring state agencies to implement emissions reductions, create clean energy workforces, provide environmental impact reports, and more in a way that protects low- and moderate-income persons and environmental justice populations in the Commonwealth); EXEC. OFF. OF ENERGY & ENV’T AFFS., ENV’T JUST. STRATEGY (2024), https://www.mass.gov/doc/february-2024-environmental-justice-strategy-english/download; EXEC. OFF. OF ENERGY & ENV’T AFFS., ENV’T JUST. POL’Y (2021), https://www.mass.gov/doc/environmental-justice-policy6242021-update/download.
12Smyton, supra note 9.
13Jayajit Chakraborty et al., Air Pollution Exposure Disparities in US Public Housing Developments, 12 SCI. REPS. 1, 6 (2022).
14Anita Desikan et al., BROKEN PROMISES: EXPOSING COMMUNITIES TO HEALTH HAZARDS 11 (CTR. FOR SCI. AND DEMOCRACY 2019).
15Angela Caputo & Sharon Lerner, House Poor, Pollution Rich, APM REPORTS (Jan. 13, 2021), https://www.apmreports.org/story/2021/01/13/public-housing-near-polluted-superfund-sites#:~:text=An%20investigation%20reveals%20that%20more,government%20inaction%20with%20their%20health.
16See Smyton, supra note 9.
17H. Patricia Hynes et al., “Where Does the Damp Come from?” Investigations into the Indoor Environment and Respiratory Health in Boston Public Housing, 24 J. OF PUB. HEALTH POL’Y 401, 405-422 (2003); Junenette L. Peters et al., Determinants of Allergen Concentrations in Apartments of Asthmatic Children Living in Public Housing, 84 J. URB. HEALTH 185 (Mar. 2007); Bashir, supra note 9; Prescott et al., supra note 8.
18Introduction, in THE NEED FOR US INDOOR AIR QUALITY GUIDELINES, supra note 8.
19BRIGHT Study Finds Improved Health at Boston Housing Authority’s Old Colony Homes, U.S. DEP’T OF HOUS. AND URB. DEV., OFF. OF POL’Y DEV. AND RSCH., https://www.huduser.gov/portal/casestudies/study-05042017.html, (last visited Nov. 3, 2023).
20Id.
21Id. at 4.
22Prescott et al., supra note 5.
23NAAQS Table, U.S. ENV’T PROT. AGENCY, https://www.epa.gov/criteria-air-pollutants/naaqs-table (last visited Aug. 21, 2024); Report on the Environment: Indoor Air Quality, U.S. ENV’T PROT. AGENCY, https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/indoor-air-quality (last visited Aug. 21, 2024) (“Outdoor air pollutants can enter buildings through open doors, open windows, ventilation systems, and cracks in structures. For example, harmful smoke from chimneys can re-enter homes to pollute the air in the home and other homes in a neighborhood”).
24Indoor Air Pollution and Health, U.S. ENV’T PROT. AGENCY, https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/introduction-indoor-air-quality (last visited Oct. 29, 2023); 40 C.F.R. § 59.201-214 (2024).
2540 C.F.R. § 61.140-61.161 (2024); 40 C.F.R. § 763.80-763.99 (2024).
26Indoor Air Quality: What Are the Trends in Indoor Air Quality and Their Effects on Human Health?, U.S. ENV’T PROT. AGENCY (July 8, 2024) https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/indoor-air-quality.
27Indoor Air Quality, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMIN., https://www.osha.gov/indoor-air-quality (last visited Aug. 23, 2024).
2840 C.F.R. § 763.120-763.163 (2024); see also Asbestos Overview, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMIN., https://www.osha.gov/asbestos (last visited Aug. 23, 2024); E. Skammeritz, et al., Asbestos Exposure and Survival in Malignant Mesothelioma: A Description of 122 Consecutive Cases at an Occupational Clinic, 2 INT’L J. OCCUPATIONAL & ENV’L MED. No 4 (Oct. 2011); Morris Greenberg & Lloyd Davies, Mesothelioma Register 1967-68, 31 BRIT. J. INDUS. MED. 91-104 (1974).
29Id.
30Indoor Air Quality, supra note 26.
31Indoor Air Quality Frequently Asked Questions, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMIN., https://www.osha.gov/indoor-air-quality/faqs (last visited Aug. 23, 2024).
32Id.
33Id.
34Low-Cost Air Pollution Monitors and Indoor Air Quality, U.S. ENV’T PROT. AGENCY (Jan. 3, 2024), https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/low-cost-air-pollution-monitors-and-indoor-air-quality (“Currently, there are no equivalent reference methods or air monitoring networks for indoor air”); see generally 40 C.F.R. pt. 53.
35U.S. DEP’T OF HOUS. AND URB. DEV., OFF. OF HEALTHY HOMES & LEAD HAZARD CONTROL, LEADING OUR NATION TO HEALTHIER HOMES: THE HEALTHY HOMES STRATEGIC PLAN 4, 12-14 (2009), https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/DOC_13701.PDF.
36Instituting Smoke-Free Public Housing, 81 Fed. Reg. 87430 (Feb. 3, 2017) (to be codified at 24 C.F.R. §§ 965, 966); Lead Safe Housing Rule, 64 Fed. Reg. 50201 (Sept. 15, 1999).
37LEADING OUR NATION TO HEALTHIER HOMES: THE HEALTHY HOMES STRATEGIC PLAN, supra note 35, at 12-14; The Healthy Homes Program, U.S. DEP’T OF HOUS. & URB. DEV., https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/healthy_homes/hhi#:~:text=Healthy%20Homes%20grants%20are%20awarded,is%20available%20at%20Grants.gov.
38Public Housing Healthy Homes Initiatives, MASS. EXEC. OFF. OF HOUS. AND LIVABLE CMTY., https://www.mass.gov/info-details/public-housing-healthy-homes-initiatives.
39Healthy Homes Initiatives, BOS. HOUS. AUTH., https://www.bostonhousing.org/en/Departments/Planning-and-Real-Estate-Development/Healthy-Homes.aspx.
40See id.
41Mayor Michelle Wu announces agreement between Boston Housing Authority and National Grid to develop networked geothermal heating at Franklin Field Apartments, BOS. HOUS. AUTH. (Jan. 25, 2024), https://www.bostonhousing.org/en/News/Mayor-Michelle-Wu-announces-agreement-between-Bost.aspx.
42Wynne Armand, Have a gas stove? How to reduce pollution that may harm health, HARV. HEALTH PUBL’G (Sept. 7, 2022), https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/have-a-gas-stove-how-to-reduce-pollution-that-may-harm-health-202209072811.
43CAL. LAB. CODE §§ 6300 et seq.; CAL. CODE REGS. tit. 8, §§ 332.2, 332.3, 336, 3203, 3362, 5141-5143, 5155, 14301; New Jersey Indoor Air Quality Standard, N.J. ADMIN. CODE § 12:100-13 (2007).
44Prescott et al., supra note 6.
45Is it a Policy, Procedure, or Guideline?, UNIV. OF WIS. MADISON POL’Y LIBR. (June 1, 2022), https://development.policy.wisc.edu/2022/06/01/is-it-a-policy-procedure-or-guideline/; but see Legal Research: A Guide to Administrative Law, LIBR. OF CONGRESS, https://guides.loc.gov/administrative-law/rules.
46Indoor Air Quality Guidelines, DEP’T OF PUBLIC HEALTH, https://www.mass.gov/lists/indoor-air-quality-guidelines (last visited Aug. 23, 2024). Guidelines “give[] recommendations, interpretations, administrative instructions, best practice guidance, or frameworks in which to operate. Guidelines are informational, not mandatory.” Is it a Policy, Procedure, or Guideline?, UNIV. OF WIS. MADISON POL’Y LIBR. (June 1, 2022), https://development.policy.wisc.edu/2022/06/01/is-it-a-policy-procedure-or-guideline/#:~:text=Guidelines%20are%20informational%2C%20not%20mandatory,depending%20on%20the%20organization's%20needs.
47See generally Radon in Schools and Child Care Programs, MASS. DEP’T OF PUB. HEALTH, https://www.mass.gov/info-details/radon-in-schools-and-child-care-programs; Fixing Radon in Your Home, MASS. DEP’T OF PUB. HEALTH, https://www.mass.gov/info-details/fixing-radon-in-your-home#how-do-i-fix-(%E2%80%9Cmitigate%E2%80%9D)-my-home?-.
48Remediation and Prevention of Mold Growth and Water Damage in Public Schools and Buildings to Maintain Air Quality, MASS. DEP’T OF PUB. HEALTH, https://www.mass.gov/info-details/remediation-and-prevention-of-mold-growth-and-water-damage-in-public-schools-and-buildings-to-maintain-air-quality.
49See Indoor Air Quality Reports, MASS. DEP’T OF PUB. HEALTH, https://www.mass.gov/report/indoor-air-quality-reports.
50See id.
51MASS. GEN. LAWs ch. 111, § 122; Remediation and Prevention of Mold Growth and Water Damage in Public Schools and Buildings to Maintain Air Quality, supra note 48.
52105 MASS. CODE REGS. 410.500.
53Gary Allen, Grounds for Filing a Civil Lawsuit: Bad Conditions and Breach of Warranty of Habitability, MASS LEGAL HELP (2017), https://masslegalhelp.org/housing/problems/deciding-to-go-to-court/civil-lawsuit#bad_conditions. For example, Massachusetts tenants may sue their landlord for harmful exposure to poor IAQ under the Massachusetts Consumer Protection statute, G.L. c. 93A. Inayat, LLC v. Paul Lusby, 19-SP-2587NB (Jan. 29, 2020) (Michaud, J.).
54MASS. GEN. LAWS ch. 111, § 127L; MASS. GEN. LAWS ch. 239, § 8A (provides that any claim that relates to the property, rental, tenancy, or occupancy may form the basis of a defense or counterclaim to a summary process (eviction) action brought against a tenant).
55MASS. GEN. LAWS ch. 239, § 8A.
56ACCESS TO COUNSEL COALITION IN MASSACHUSETTS, FY25 BUDGET REQUEST TO GOVERNOR HEALEY AND SECRETARY GORZKOWICZ (Nov. 13, 2023), https://www.massrtc.org/fact-sheets.html. Similarly, here is no right to counsel in civil “shelter” actions in Massachusetts, unless there is an allegation of a “discriminatory housing practice” under the federal Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3613(b). See DIRECTORY OF LAW GOVERNING APPOINTMENT OF COUNSEL IN STATE CIVIL PROCEEDINGS: MASSACHUSETTS, A.B.A. (2016), https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/legal_aid_indigent_defendants/ls_sclaid_judges_manual_ma.pdf.
57See Julie Lee, Balancing the Scales of Justice: Why Right to Counsel in Eviction Cases is a Racial Justice and Housing Justice Issue, ACLU MASS. (Jan. 16, 2024), https://data.aclum.org/2024/01/16/eviction-cases-analysis/.
58See supra note 47.
59See Prescott et al., supra note 6.
60H. 2230, 192nd GEN. CT. COMMW. OF MASS. (2021-2022).
61THE JOHNS HOPKINS CTR. FOR HEALTH SEC., MODEL STATE INDOOR AIR QUALITY ACT (2023), https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/sites/default/files/2023-08/230801-msiaqa-final.pdf.
62LEADING OUR NATION TO HEALTHIER HOMES: THE HEALTHY HOMES STRATEGIC PLAN, supra note 35.
63Prescott et al., supra note 6, at 5-7. One local regulation that advocates can rely on is 454 C.M.R 22.00, promulgated by the Massachusetts Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”), which sets standards for ventilation, temperature, humidity, and other factors affecting indoor air quality in workplaces.