social contract

Now more than ever

♲ John M. Gamble - 2025-09-15 15:36:22 GMT

@griff #ParadoxOfTolerance #Philosophy

And the corollary/response:

If, like me, you need hotels with fast, reliable Wi-Fi, start looking for venues with Ookla Speedtest Certified ratings.

zdnet.com/home-and-office/netw…

Ookla launches Wi-Fi Speedtest Certified program to help prove network quality

This new Wi-Fi certification will help you identify hotels, arenas, and conferences with reliable network speed.

^{Steven Vaughan-Nichols (ZDNET)}

Eradicating mould would save millions in health-care costs: how our homes affect our health

Housing is a key determinant of physical health. Housing conditions can increase or reduce the risk of problems including respiratory illness, heart disease and injury.

Improving housing conditions would see an improvement in health at the population level and reduce health-care costs.

In a study yet to be peer-reviewed, our research team has estimated eradicating mould and damp in Australian housing could cut health expenditure by A$117 million per million people, and increase income by $174 million. These figures represent 0.5%–2.1% of annual health spending and 0.08%–0.36% of gross domestic product.

We also estimated tackling mould and damp could result in an extra 4,190 health-adjusted life years (the number of years a person can expect to live in good health) per million people over 20 years. This is equivalent to about 1.5 healthy days per person. We’d see the greatest gains among people who are most disadvantaged.

In Australia and several similar countries, the conditions and location of many people’s homes are heavily influenced by housing affordability and the failure of successive governments to treat housing as a human right. Instead, it’s often been treated as a wealth-generating asset.

But it’s time to change things. The significant effects of poor housing on health, and a growing body of evidence indicating healthier homes could lead to tangible improvements, build a strong case for prioritising healthy housing policy in Australia.

Eradicating mould would save millions in health-care costs: how our homes affect our health

We spend a lot of time and money treating chronic health conditions. But we could prevent some of them in the first place if we improved housing.

^{The Conversation}