[150 years of hygienic requirements of dwellings in Italy].

Abstract

In Italy Public Health legislation had, since unification of the nation in 1861, a peculiar consideration for building hygiene, with a particular focus on dwellings. The first law about these themes is the number 5849 in 1888, named Crispi-Pagliani, after the Italian prime minister of the time and the hygienist who collaborated in lawmaking. The authors of the present work describe how laws evolved during 150 years of history, passing through social, demographic, political, economical, cultural and scientific changes. In the meantime they try to explain the role of public health practitioners in this field, also in relation with administrative processes that changed in time. Everything considering how indoor environment and home in particular are fundamental determinants of health, nowadays that people in richest countries spend most of their lifetime in this particular environment.