Learning the Hard Way: The Poor Environment of America's Schools

[Guest guest]

September 23, 2005

Bacteria Biggest N.O. Water Problem, Mold Next

Learning the Hard Way: The Poor Environment of America's Schools

by Wakefield

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Teachers at a Fairfield, Connecticut, grade school used to joke

about working under tropical rain forest conditions. Built on

wetlands, McKinley Elementary had suffered chronic leaky ceilings

and soggy carpets since the early 1990s, problems that outstripped

the pace of attempted repairs. But the mold that kept colonizing the

school's walls and corridors proved no laughing matter. For several

years, scores of students and teachers experienced problems ranging

from asthma to sinus infections to dizziness and tremors. After

concerned teachers called in federal health inspectors from the

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the school was

finally closed in October 2000. Inspectors had detected spores from

at least eight varieties of mold, including Stachybotrys, which has

been linked to serious illness and even death. Shortly thereafter, a

private consulting group determined the building was unsalvageable.

The district now must foot the bill to raze the building and replace

it with a new $21 million facility.

" The building impacted the health of 40% of the students and

teachers, " estimates Santilli, chief of allergy and immunology

at the nearby St. 's Medical Center in Bridgeport, who

treated many of the afflicted pupils and staff over the years. At

least one teacher who was heavily exposed is on permanent

disability, and others experienced breast cancers and miscarriages

that Santilli says might be linked to exposure to secondary mold

metabolites called mycotoxins, but more study is needed. " There's a

dearth of research on the impact of indoor pollutants on human

health and especially on children, " he says.

McKinley is not an isolated case. Experts contend that thousands of

schools nationwide harbor environmental threats that may be placing

students, teachers, and staff at risk. In addition to toxic molds,

such threats may include indoor air pollution, exposure to

pesticides, effects of overcrowding including disease transmission,

exposure to toxic chemicals from building materials, noise

pollution, and the hazards of old and crumbling school

infrastructure.

More than 14 million (almost half of U.S. children) attend schools

with an environmental problem, according to a landmark 1995 General

Accounting Office (GAO) report entitled School Facilities: Condition

of America's Schools. Subsequent reports by educational advocacy

groups support the findings. " Basically, almost no improvements have

been made since then, " says Barnett, director of the Healthy

Schools Network, a national advocacy group based in New York. Says

Barnett, who also serves on the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency's (EPA) Office of Children's Health Protection federal

advisory committee, " There is no oversight from the federal level

and little oversight of such issues in any of the states. Schools

are very local. " She continues, " Environmental health in schools is

an orphan issue. The federal government has to take more of a

leadership role at all different levels: research and surveillance,

guidelines for maintenance and repairs, and new construction. "

Indoor Air Quality

Experts estimate that children spend about 85% of their time indoors

including about 7 hours per day in school. Poor indoor air quality

is the most prevalent environmental hazard in schools. In fact, 30-

40% of schools have poor indoor air quality, according to the GAO

report. The threats include exposure to molds and toxic fungi,

pesticides, and volatile organic chemicals emitted from cleaning

products, photocopiers, and classroom furnishings. Radon gas and

other outdoor pollutants also can enter school buildings. And

airborne asbestos from insulation and lead released from paints and

other building materials during renovation or repair can pose

threats to health. Faulty heating, ventilation, and air conditioning

(HVAC) systems only exacerbate air quality problems.

So-called " sick building syndrome, " a compilation of unexplainable

symptoms including headaches, nervous system effects, respiratory

problems, and others, is also a concern for schoolchildren. School

nurses routinely hear complaints of such symptoms from children. The

syndrome, first formally identified by the World Health Organization

in 1983, became prevalent with the advent in the 1970s of modern,

air-tight buildings designed to conserve energy.

Poor indoor air quality affects student performance of mental tasks

involving concentration, calculations, and memory, and thus academic

achievement, studies reveal. For example, the EPA Indoor Air Quality

(IAQ) and Student Performance Web site summarizes a 1996 European

study of 800 students from eight different schools, published in

Indoor Air '96. The Seventh International Conference on Indoor Air

Quality and Climate. In the study, carbon dioxide measurements were

taken in the classrooms, and students were given a health symptom

questionnaire. A computer program scored students' ability to

concentrate. Carbon dioxide itself is not a health threat at levels

found indoors, but since the main source of carbon dioxide in

buildings is exhaled breath, carbon dioxide levels in classrooms are

an indication of low ventilation rates and, therefore, high levels

of pollution. In classrooms where carbon dioxide levels were high

(low ventilation rates), student scores on the concentration tests

were low; and their health symptom responses were high. The results

were statistically significant and tend to confirm that with indoor

air quality management, including source control and adequate

ventilation, student performance can improve.

Epidemiologists believe polluted indoor air increases the rates of

allergies, asthma, and infectious and respiratory diseases. A June

1998 study by the Central New York Occupational Health Clinical

Center entitled Health and Safety at School reported that teachers

were the fifth most common occupational group seen by doctors over

the nine-year history of the clinic. Educational settings were the

second most common type of worksite reported by the clinic's

patients. According to the study, more than 80% of the patients that

worked in school environments were diagnosed with respiratory

illness. According to a 1995 report Asthma in America, published by

Mikalix and Company in Waltham, Massachusetts, schools and childcare

facilities may be home to many common asthma triggers including

indoor air pollution. According to an article in the March 1992

issue of the American Journal of Public Health, asthma is the number

one cause of school absences attributed to chronic illnesses,

leading to an average of 4.6 school days missed annually.

Crumbling Schools and Packed Classrooms

Buildings that are not well maintained can contribute to poor

environmental conditions, and the nation's crumbling school

infrastructure is a prime example. About one-third of school

buildings require major repairs or out-and-out replacement,

according to a 2000 report by the National Education Association

(NEA) entitled Modernizing Our Schools: What Will It Cost? On

average, the nation's public schools are more than 40 years old,

which means more and more will need repairs in the next decade. More

than $320 billion will be needed to bring schools up to standard

nationwide, estimates the NEA report. The figure includes $268

billion for infrastructure and the remainder for technology

upgrades. Rural schools often have more environmental problems,

according to another recent report by the National Center for

Education Statistics entitled Conditions of America's Public School

Facilities: 1999. Funding is the main barrier to upgrades, the

report found.

Last winter, Congress passed the Healthy and High Performance

Schools Act, which directs the Department of Education (ED) to study

the effects of decayed schools on child health and learning and to

set up a program to help states create buildings that are healthier

and more energy efficient. The legislation is unprecedented. " It

brings child environmental health issues to the Department of

Education for the first time and opens the door for more

conversations, " says Barnett, who led the national campaign for

passage. However, the ED has yet to act because the House of

Representatives stripped the program's funding from the law.

In 2000, recognizing that schools suffer from an epidemic of indoor

air pollution, Congress appropriated $1.2 billion for health and

safety grants for emergency renovations in schools. However, the

Bush administration has thus far failed to renew the federal repair

funding program in its budget requests to Congress.

Where schools are sited, of course, can influence their exposure to

environmental threats. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of U.S.

schoolchildren attend schools that were built within a half-mile

radius of a known contaminated site. Such proximity puts them at

increased risk for developing diseases linked to environmental

pollutants such as asthma, cancer, and learning disorders, according

to a report entitled Creating Safe Learning Zones: Invisible

Threats, Visible Actions, released in January by the Child Proofing

Our Communities Campaign, coordinated by the Center for Health,

Environment, and Justice in Falls Church, Virginia. The study looked

at Superfund and other contaminated sites in five states:

California, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York. It

found that more than 1,100 public schools are built within a half-

mile radius of such a site, exposing more than 600,000 students to

potential hazards. It suggests that thousands more schools in other

states are likely putting other students at risk.

Although the study found no direct link between school location and

disease, it notes the increase in such problems nationally. For

example, the study notes a dramatic rise in the number of children

afflicted with asthma, cancer, learning disabilities, attention

deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism nationally. Autism

cases, for one, may have doubled between 1987 and 1990. Asthma

afflicts 8.6 million U.S. children under age 18, according to the

American Lung Association. And the National Cancer Institute reports

sharp increases in cases of childhood cancer between 1973 and 1995.

The jury is still out on whether exposure to chemicals may cause

disorders such as autism and ADHD. Currently, the Agency for Toxic

Substances and Disease Research is studying the issue of siting

schools near hazardous waste sites.

New schools continue to be built near such sites because such land

is cheap and available. By 2003, 2,400 new schools are expected to

be completed to meet needs of the growing population, the NEA

estimates. " If action isn't taken immediately, these new schools

will continue to be built without guidelines to protect children

against chemical exposures, " says Lois Gibbs, executive director of

the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. Gibbs founded the

center two decades ago after leading a public awareness campaign

about nuclear hazards near Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York.

A lack of sufficient numbers of schools leads to overcrowded

classrooms, a situation that only adds to the problem. Most schools

have quadruple the number of people per square foot as most offices,

the NEA reports. And aside from prisons, schools are the most

densely populated institutions in the United States. There's a clear

relation between classroom density and communicable diseases,

asserts Darryl , associate director of Occupational

Environmental Health with the American Federation of

Teachers. " There's more outbreaks of [tuberculosis in schools] than

in any other community, " she says.

Rapid growth in various areas of the United States has led to the

increased use of portable classrooms as a solution to overcrowding.

Some 85,000 portable classrooms are currently in use in California.

They are also increasingly popular in Sunbelt communities

experiencing rapid growth. For example, the structures were a big

issue during the last gubernatorial race in Florida. Often they are

introduced as a stop-gap measure, but construction of permanent

classrooms often ends up being delayed for decades thanks to tight

education budgets.

Such modular classroom units, however, are often built from

hazardous materials and have poor ventilation, asserts a study by

the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit environmental

research organization based in Washington, DC. The study, published

on the organization's Web site, calculated that long-term exposure

to formaldehyde, benzene, and other chemicals emitted by such

portables could increase a child's lifetime risk of developing

cancer by a factor of two.

Last year in California, a settlement was reached between As You

Sow, a San Francisco-based environmental group, and 14 manufacturers

and distributors of modular buildings. As part of the settlement,

the industry will substitute a less-toxic formulation of

formaldehyde used in particle board and plywood in the rooms,

improve ventilation, and use formaldehyde-free adhesives, among

other things.

Although the industry admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement,

other studies by As You Sow and others have found potentially

harmful levels of toxic chemicals in the air in portable

classrooms. " There is something to these reports rather than some

imaginary mass hysteria, " says Bill , California director of

the EWG.

" We'd like to find ways to phase out formaldehyde altogether, " says

Larry Fahn, As You Sow's executive director. Wood products that use

phenol formaldehyde still emit some of the chemical into the air but

much less than the more commonly used urea formaldehyde. Fahn

worries that portable classrooms in other regions of the country may

still contain wood treated with the urea formulation because other

states don't have as stringent laws as California's Proposition 65,

which mandates warning labels on all products containing cancer-

causing or harmful chemicals.

Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the

UCLA School of Public Health are developing tools to assess

exposures in portable classrooms in children 5-9 years old. In the

UCLA Portable Classroom Study, researchers are examining 20

classrooms in seven Los Angeles area schools. About two-thirds are

portable.

" There's a relative dearth of information about schools in general, "

says senior research associate Shendell. The team is looking

at everything from indoor air temperature and relative humidity and

air exchange rates, to emissions of such volatile organic compounds

as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, to new types of HVAC systems.

Preliminary results reveal that the upkeep of HVAC systems can be

just as important as their quality. " It's not that the current

technology is the problem, " Shendell says, " it's how that technology

is being operated and maintained over time. " The researchers are

also finding that human factors play a role. Anecdotally, teachers

often turn off the ventilation systems because of the noise,

Shendell says.

Noise and Lighting

Noise is another form of classroom pollution. Recent findings

presented at the Acoustical Society of America meeting this past

December by University of Florida at Gainesville researchers showed

that noisy classrooms severely hamper students' ability to learn. In

Florida elementary, middle, and high schools, a team led by

architect professor Seibein and Carl Crandell, a communications

sciences and disorders professor, found that background noise levels

average about 50 decibels. Although a normal speaking voice

registers at about 60 decibels, students typically have a difficult

time hearing once background levels reach 50 decibels. In the study,

students positioned more than 12 feet from a teacher heard half or

less of the lecture. Noise may also contribute to voice disorders

among teachers, who experience higher rates of such problems than

the general population. " I believe it's because teachers have to

scream over the noise, " says.

Previous studies provide more evidence that noise may impair

learning. For example, a 1975 study at a school near railroad tracks

found children who spent six years in classrooms closest to the

tracks were an entire year behind children whose rooms were furthest

from the tracks. A 1993 study by Cornell University researcher

, published in Children's Environments, determined that

children exposed to noise experienced assorted health and learning

difficulties compared with unexposed children. Elevated blood

pressure, trouble with word discrimination, learned helplessness,

and cognitive developmental delays were observed. [see EHP 105:1300-

1301]

In 2003, a federal noise standard for classrooms of 35 decibels and

0.6 second reverberation--the length of time a sound lingers in a

room after a noise stops--is slated to go into effect. The Federal

Access Board, which creates regulations under the Americans With

Disabilities Act, is reviewing the standard now. Only central air-

conditioning units are quiet enough to meet the standard.

On the basis of virtual classroom modeling, Crandell and Siebein

recommend square rooms with ceilings less than 10 feet high to

minimize noise. In addition, the square footage of total absorbent

material (acoustical ceiling tiles or wall panels) should equal the

total area of a room for maximum noise reduction, they say. Shendell

and his team, meanwhile, are testing prototype HVAC units that are

not only quieter but also more efficient at particulate filtration

than are conventional systems.

In addition to noise, research has also shown that there is a

significant effect of poor lighting on children's ability to learn.

Sunlight is important for human health. Children who spend large

amounts of time in artificial lighting may be missing out on some of

sunlight's benefits.

Case studies reported by the Healthy Schools Network in a fact sheet

on school lighting show the benefits of " daylighting, " or creating

classrooms with " full-spectrum lighting. " For example, a two-year

study of six schools in ston County, North Carolina, compared

children attending schools with full-spectrum light with those

attending traditionally lit classrooms. Students in full-spectrum

light were healthier overall and attended school 3.2 to 3.8 days

more per year. They also exhibited more positive moods. The study

also showed that libraries with superior light had significantly

lower noise levels. A study of students in Capistrano School

District in Orange County, California showed that students in

classrooms with the most natural light progressed 20% faster on math

tests and 26% faster on reading tests in one year than those with

the least amount of daylight.

Another benefit of daylighting is increased energy efficiency of

schools and thus, significant cost savings--that can be used for

other school needs--and reduced environmental impact.

Pesticides

Pesticide exposure in schools is a national concern to parents and

school administrators alike. Surveys indicate a majority of schools

in most states still use pesticides that are known to cause cancer

or adversely effect the nervous, hormone, or reproductive systems in

and around school buildings. For example, 93% of 46 California

school districts recently surveyed used pesticides and 87% use

hazardous formulations with known health effects. Hope for better

national protections for students from pesticides in schools was

dashed in May when Congress, after a several year drive by

advocates, tabled the School Environmental Protection Act, which

would have supported efforts to put so-called best practices like

integrated pest management programs in place. " Teachers and school

staff deserve the basic health and safety protections that this

right-to-know and pest management measure would provide, " says Jay

Feldman, executive director of the national advocacy group Beyond

Pesticides. As it stands, there are no federal requirements for

schools to reduce children's school-based exposures to pesticides.

Only four states: land, Massachusetts, Michigan, and

Pennsylvania, have laws on the books that cover the three key

aspects of pesticide protection: posting, notifications, and

integrated pest management (IPM). Thirty-one states have adopted

pesticide laws that cover at least one such element, according to a

survey by Beyond Pesticides entitled The Schooling of State

Pesticide Laws 2002 Update.

Even in states where laws have been passed, compliance often falls

short. In 2000, the EWG reported that several million pounds of the

pesticide methyl bromide were still being applied annually near

schools in California despite a 1989 law to protect citizens. Since

then, California has passed the Healthy Schools Act that requires

schools to report to parents in writing what chemicals are used to

kill pests, but the law does not ban pesticides in schools. Many

schools have adopted IPM to discourage routine use of pesticides,

and to use the least toxic method whenever possible. In land,

for instance, 17 of 17 school districts surveyed adopted IPM

policies.

Policy Gaps at the Local Level

Cracks in the system to protect environmental health in schools were

underscored in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World

Trade Center. Seven public schools located just blocks from the

World Trade Center disaster area were evacuated and temporarily

relocated, including Stuyvesant High School and Special Education

School. When the students could safely move back and how the

environments would be monitored proved highly contentious. Some

3,000 students were moved back into the Stuyvesant facility as early

as 9 October. But the school was just 60 feet from the barge

operation where trucks were dumping wreckage for transfer to the

Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island. Large levels of dust

infiltrated the school. Dozens of students and teachers experienced

problems ranging from rashes to respiratory ailments. More than 50

members of the teachers' local union filed a grievance on the issue.

" They were the canaries in the coal mine, " says research consultant

Bartlett of the Stuyvesant students. " What happened at

Stuyvesant shook up the other parent communities, " she says, which

decided not to move students back until January or February

2002. " The children became political tools to make it seem like

things were normal downtown, " Bartlett says. But there was little

information available about the nature of the dust and no tracking

of students' health complaints. " A lot of people wish they hadn't

moved the students back, " she says.

The attacks called attention to the fact that indoor air quality is

a bigger issue for urban schools then was previously understood,

Bartlett says. New York City has spent roughly $10 million to

retrofit the air filtration systems of the schools affected by the

September 11 attacks. The effects of September 11 also highlight the

lack of a national tracking system of environmental problems in

schools. " There's no tracking of pupil injury or illness at schools

or efforts to compile such information on a national or statewide

basis, " Barnett says. " There isn't a system in place even to report

mold contamination or chemical exposures. Given the times we're

living in, it's a little unsettling. "

For example, the spreading outbreak of unexplained rashes on

students at schools in more than 20 states and parts of Canada that

began before September 11 remains much of a mystery, despite the

fact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has

launched an investigation, Barnett says. " Inadequate local reporting

of cases hasn't helped matters, " she says. " There is also no

baseline against which a rash outbreak could be measured. "

Even with improved legislation at the federal or the state level,

much of the responsibility for improving school environmental

conditions would still fall to local governments. And local

political bodies have their limitations, critics contend. " By and

large, school districts are not the best building owners in the

world, " says. " Whenever they're in a bind financially,

they raid funds from the maintenance budget without understanding

the implications for occupants. "

Such was the case in Connecticut at the McKinley School, where the

mold eventually overtook the building. " It's a situation where the

board of education didn't get the significance of the problem, " says

Santilli. " They pooh-poohed it. "

By the same token, local politics can tie administrators' hands. " If

you look at bond issues that get defeated, you can see the

predicament administrators are put into, " says. Schools

are also affected by liability and disclosure issues, says Michele

Hodak, senior project coordinator for indoor air quality for the

NEA's Health Information Network. " People are afraid of negative

publicity. But if there is a problem and nothing is done about it,

kids, staff, and teachers may be put at greater risk, " she says. " A

small hazard can become a much bigger issue and even more expensive

to fix. " Says , " There are too many incentives built into

school boards and districts [to deny environmental problems]. "

Few Federal Fixes

Even though close to 20% of the nation passes its days inside

schools, no specific federal laws protect students and teachers from

harmful environmental conditions in or surrounding their schools. In

short, no nationwide laws target indoor air quality, pesticide use

near schools, or how close schools and hazardous sites can be

located to each other, despite the fact that assorted federal

education, research, and grant programs target such issues.

OSHA standards and regulations, which cover adults in certain

portions of the workplace, offer some environmental protections to

teachers and staff such as the ability to call in a health inspector

to investigate a serious exposure. But the standards and regulations

don't pertain to children. Moreover, it's an unusual occasion when

exposure levels in an office building or school would approach those

spelled out in the regulations, which were designed in the early

1970s for industrial settings, according to OSHA.

Staff, teachers, or administrators may also request an investigation

of an indoor environmental exposure or incident from the Health

Hazard Evaluation Program of the National Institute for Occupational

Safety and Health (NIOSH), which sets guidelines relating to indoor

air quality. The program receives 450 requests a year, half of which

result in site visits, a small fraction of which are at schools. " We

always look at ventilation as a key component as well as comfort

parameters, " says Burr, a certified industrial hygienist at

NIOSH. Often problems can be addressed over the phone based on

experience from previous cases. " Usually, it's not just a single

factor that's causing a problem, " Burr says. " The answers aren't

always black and white. "

School advocates contend that there needs to be a parallel outlet to

NIOSH for students. " There's nowhere to go and complain when kids

are being exposed to awful conditions, " Barnett says. " There's no

way of getting any immediate attention or investigation. " One state,

Maine, has moved to give students employee status under the

regulations. Still, asserts , " Kids are in a total vacuum.

Teachers and staff are in a partial vacuum. None of the federal

agencies are doing enough. "

Existing federal laws are probably the toughest on asbestos. Under

the federal Asbestos Management Emergency Response Act, schools are

required to have an asbestos management plan and pass an inspection

every three years. In about half of states, the federal regulation

is enforced at the state level, according to the EPA's Asbestos

Ombudsman Office. There are no federal laws on the books requires

testing for lead or lead abatement in schools.

A leading obstacle to passing broader legislation is a dearth of

research on how indoor pollutants affect human health. Much work

remains to establish solid links between an agent and an illness,

and to unravel what makes individuals susceptible to exposures.

Meanwhile, advocates believe that children, in particular, may be

more susceptible to environmental hazards than are adults. How much

more so remains unknown. " It's clear children are uniquely

vulnerable, " Barnett says. " But what does that mean when you're

inside a building? "

There has been significant legislative activity at the state level

recently, however. More than 12 states, including Maine, Minnesota,

New York, and California, have adopted new policies or regulations

that address indoor air quality in schools. " There is a momentum out

there at the state level, " says.

Most of the laws were recently put on the books and are in the early

stages of implementation, according to an Environmental Law

Institute (ELI) report released earlier this year entitled Healthier

Schools: A Review of State Policy for Improving Indoor Air

Quality. " States have a pretty big role to play, " says Tobie

Bernstein, a senior ELI attorney who authored the report. " There's a

need for more attention to be paid to this subject throughout the

country. "

Stepping Up to the Board

The EPA does provide guidance for schools, however. It produced an

indoor air quality " Tools for Schools " kit that includes a

guidebook, a CD-ROM, checklists for school employees, a fact sheet,

a problem-solving information wheel, and sample policies and memos.

" We still get a lot done in a voluntary fashion, " says ,

director of the EPA's Indoor Environments Division. She estimates

that 9,000 of the nation's 110,000 schools have implemented some

sort of indoor air quality policy in recent years thanks to the

EPA's outreach efforts. Her division will conduct a survey this

summer to better gauge the impact of its efforts in this area.

Anecdotal evidence reveals that indoor air quality policies are

working. In the Little Harbour school in Portsmouth, New Hampshire,

for example, school nurse Priscilla Santiago reported to a

dramatic decrease in visits to her office and absenteeism after the

EPA's " Tools for Schools " program was implemented.

Many school districts, such as those in land's Montgomery County

and California's Los Angeles County, have implemented indoor air

quality management plans. Two years ago, the Montgomery County

district added a preventive maintenance team that has systematically

been assessing school buildings one by one. Night crews complete

preventive maintenance and ensure that schools are maintained at the

improved level. So far, the team has assessed roughly 40 of 198

schools in the district, according to Barry J. Hemler, the program's

environmental safety coordinator. The $2 million annual price tag is

affordable at less than 0.02% of the district's overall budget,

Hemler says. " It still is enough to make a measurable difference. "

Moreover, the efforts of a federal interagency task force on child

environmental health co-chaired by the EPA and the Department of

Health and Human Services is addressing issues related to asthma,

indoor air, and school environments, and will bring the resources of

these agencies to bear on such problems, as well as better

coordinate existing programs.

The EPA also puts out supporting literature and videos on related

topics ranging from asthma to mold. For example, in addition to

putting together the " Tools for Schools " kit, the EPA teamed up with

the cast and crew of the TV show This Old House to create a video on

how to properly operate and maintain school ventilation systems.

They are currently working on " Tools for New Schools, " a kit which

will detail how to design a new school to be more environmentally

friendly.

Besides sponsoring annual indoor air quality symposiums and awards,

the EPA also has other initiatives underway to enhance environmental

health in schools. For example, its " Buy Clean " program strives to

encourage schools to purchase and test environmentally preferable

products for cleaning, use in science labs, art classes, and so

forth. Currently, the program is supporting pilot grants in 13

schools nationwide and is developing case studies for use by other

schools. A " Buy Clean " Web site and brochure will be also be

available, according to Fehrenbacher, chief of the EPA's

exposure assessment branch.

Even some advocates acknowledge that federal regulations would not

necessarily prove a panacea for environmental health in schools. " It

is a difficult thing to regulate because one school may have a

pesticide application problem while another has a ventilation

issue, " says. Regional variables include everything from

climate to the number of kids in classrooms. But, she says, getting

best practices in place is a chief policy goal.

Until stronger federal protections are passed, the lion's share of

the burden to safeguard children from environmental hazards in

schools will continue to fall on local shoulders. Children's

advocates contend that it is up to state and local administrators,

teachers, students, and parents to protect school environments, and

to get the most from federal resources and agencies that are moving

to address the issue.

Originally published by Environmental Health Perspectives in June,

2002. Republished with permission.

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