Maybe it's the water in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Perhaps it's the wrestler-turned-governor Jesse Ventura threatening to pin residents who don't take care of themselves. Whatever it is, Minnesota is making a name for itself as a very healthy place to live.

Last week, the Twin Cites suburb of Woodbury announced construction of the nation's first American Lung Association Health House, built to special specifications developed by the association.

Minnesota's St. Paul is home to Jackson Street Village another Health House demonstration project.

A remodel project in Edina also employed Health Home techniques during rebuilding.

And earlier this year, the state ranked first as the nation's most livable state largely because of its high ranking as one of the nation's healthiest states.

The 5,400 square foot blueprint Health House includes unique features and products to address the three most important elements of a healthy indoor environment: air ventilation, air filtration and moisture control. It's scheduled to open this fall.

Energy-efficient building practices have been both good and bad for the household environment. Money and energy is saved, but sometimes not without the the added cost of special health care and financial costs due to inadequate ventilation and insufficient moisture control systems.

The American Lung Association says energy-efficient building without Health Home techniques can create a tight-home syndrome generating indoor air that's two to five times as polluted as outdoor air. That's particularly bad news for the growing number of asthma sufferers. Some 26 million Americans have been diagnosed with asthma, 8.6 million of whom are children. The one in six people and one in three families that suffer from some kind of allergy also suffer under tight-home conditions.

Health House is a national educational program that teaches builders and home owners how to build, remodel and maintain environment-friendly homes that remain healthy even with energy efficient and durable building practices.

Among other things, it's hoped the Health House effort will help abate the growing plague of mold that has not only made people sick but has also created greater health care, insurance and litigation costs.

St. Paul's Jackson Street Village, for families who have experienced chemical dependency problems and or bouts with homelessness, is scheduled to open in February.

"People living in low-income urban environments have a significantly higher rate of asthma, allergies and other respiratory illnesses than other Americans," said Angie Lien, director of the American Lung Association Health House program.

"In Minnesota, low-income individuals with asthma are three times more likely to visit the hospital emergency room or require hospitalization than other people with asthma," Lien added.

In Edina, the remodeling job began with extensive tests for radon, lead, asbestos, home tightness, and the efficiency of the home's systems. Health Home techniques were later included in the rebuilding process.

"Our goal with this project is to show consumers that minimizing exposure to pollutants generated by a remodel project will also help them safeguard their health. In addition, we believe it's important to correct existing problems with home systems such as filtration, ventilation, and moisture control before undertaking further renovations," Lien said.

That, in part, is the approach to life that this year landed Minnesota the coveted "Most Livable State" award for the sixth year in a row from Lawrence, KS-based Morgan Quitno Press, a statistical researcher and publisher. Morgan Quitno also named Minnesota the nation's second most "Healthiest State".

The healthy living award is based on an analysis of 21 factors, including access to health care providers, affordability of health care, infant mortality rates, teen birth rate, binge drinking rates and sexually transmitted disease rates.

Published: September 12, 2002

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.