There are sound arguments to be made that “The Internet of Things1” has an important future as a health and safety earlier-than-first responder for the most vulnerable who live among us. That includes children, older adults, and people with disabilities of all ages.
The following article points out with a tragic personal example that half of those who died in the London Grenfell Tower fire were children or living with a disability. Particularly vulnerable are those who live in social/public housing, with the proportion of vulnerable occupants much higher than in free market apartment buildings and condos.
Governments as well as housing providers are currently waking up to decades of social/public housing neglect in some countries. The state of building conditions in the UK2 and the US3, to name two of those countries, threatens to eclipse all other concerns. And yet the sorry conditions only exacerbate the health and safety issues that might eventually find some important protection from the “Internet of Things.”
What kinds of protection? Read more about one particular kind: fire safety in social/public housing, at IFSEC Global: Fire safety for disabled residents is not a minority issue” – Using technology to manage fire safety risks in social housing
Footnotes
- From Wikipedia: The Internet of Things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects), that are embedded with sensors, processing ability, software, and other technologies, and that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communications networks.
- Read this admission from the UK’s new Secretary of Housing and Communities in the Evening Standard: Michael Gove: State of social housing ‘scandalous’ in some parts of country
- Read more about repairing public housing in New York City alone, which has been estimated to cost more than 40 billion dollars, in CITYLIMITS: It’s Time to Finally Address the Health Risks of NYC Public Housing
