I/V w/ Toby Tilsey on sustainable living: June 19, 2019

Craft Homes is a is a company committed to building sustainable homes that are conscious of the environment as well as people’s health. Toby Tilsey is the director and believes in better quality, and more energy efficient homes. Lillian Hanly spoke with him about the issues they are hoping to combat with these types of homes.

In the interview, Toby mentions he doesn't know the financial cost for New Zealand from Asthma so Lillian looked up some of the stats. These figures are available on the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ website. One of the key things to know is that asthma and respiratory diseases are two of the leading causes of sickness and death in New Zealand. Over 597,000 people take medication for asthma − it affects one in eight adults and one in seven children (Source: New Zealand Health Survey). Large numbers of children are still being admitted to hospital with asthma, there were 3,050 admissions in 2017, and some of these will have had a potentially life-threatening attack (Barnard & Zhang, 2018). 77 people die from asthma each year, that's just over 1 person per week. By far the highest number of people being admitted to hospital with asthma are Māori, Pasifika peoples and people living in the most deprived areas. The cost of asthma to the nation is over $1 billion per year (Barnard & Zhang, 2018).