Press- Natl Healthy Schools Day-Schools Building Week

[Guest guest]

PRESS RELEASE

For release Monday, April 30, 2007, 8 AM Eastern Time

Contact: Healthy Schools Network

Barnett, 202-543-7555 or 518-573-5878

HEROES UNITE in NATIONWIDE EVENTS

GOAL: HELP 54 MILLION CHILDREN

GET GREENER, HEALTHIER SCHOOLS

(Washington, DC, April 30) Schools, parents, personnel,

advocates, and

agencies are uniting nationwide this week to promote the healthy and

green

school environments for all children.

>From Maine to Hawaii, Georgia to Michigan, Los Angeles to East

Harlem and

District of Columbia, there are workshops on 'green' cleaning

products that

reduce toxics in schools and improve indoor air; workshops and tours

of newly

built High Performance Schools designed to reap the achievement and

productivity

benefits of healthy indoor environments while achieving energy and

resource

savings; parent-led health fairs on children and toxics; school

clean-up days

and student posters; school assemblies on air quality; regional

workshops on

school environments; letter-writing campaigns; vendor fairs; and

citations for

schools.

Five National Healthy Schools Heroes are also receiving their awards

from

Healthy Schools Network in Washington, DC on May 4th, along with

middle-schoolers who are in town to receive School of the Future

national

building design competition awards sponsored by the CEFPI Foundation

and

Charitable Trust and its School Building Week partners. National

Healthy

Schools Day is the first day of School Building Week, April 30- May

4th. Events

are continuing into mid-May.

National Healthy Schools Day is coordinated by Healthy Schools

Network, Inc,

partnered with the CEFPI Foundation, US EPA, American Public Health

Association,

National School Plant Management Association, Environmental Building

News,

Collaborative for High Performance Schools, and Green Seal, as well

as leaders

in the national Coalition for Healthier Schools.

Comments from co-sponsors and national leaders:

a.. Ramona Trovato, Healthy Schools Network Board Member/HSN-

National

Committee Chair

" There are 120,000 public and private schools in the country

enrolling about 54

million children. Repeated studies have shown layers of neglect of

school

buildings that cause or expose hazards that erode children's health

and

learning. This is no longer a local problem-this is a national

crisis. Today,

National Healthy Schools Day, and this week, School Building Week,

we honor and

educate schools, agencies, communities, and advocates, and ask

everyone to

commit to resolving systemic problems so that every child has an

environmentally

healthy school. "

a.. A. Kube, Executive Director/CEO, CEFPI Foundation &

Charitable

Trust, Council of Educational Facilities Planners International

" The CEFPI Foundation & Charitable Trust believes that reinforcing

the

connection between school facilities and student learning through

events such as

National Healthy Schools Day offers an opportunity to create greater

public

awareness of the importance of healthy school environments that

enhance student

and teacher performance and well being as well as community

vitality. Today, we

have an even better opportunity to plan and design healthy, safe,

high

performance and sustainable buildings that will provide healthy,

comfortable and

nurturing indoor environments for our children and our

communities. "

www.cefpi.org/

a.. Noel, Executive Director, National School Plant

Management

Association

" The National School Plant Management Association membership

applauds all the

volunteers and organizations participating in the National Healthy

Schools Day.

As school facility directors, managers, maintenance, housekeeping

and operations

personnel, we strive daily to maintain a healthy environment for

students and

staff. The difficulty of the task is ever-increasing, yet funding

and support

continue to diminish. A healthy school environment takes the effort

of all

stakeholders, of which we are but one. So, on this auspicious

occasion, let's

turn this one day of emphasis into a future of days in which school

environments

are appreciated, healthy, and rarely problems. "

a.. , President, Building Green/Executive Editor,

Environmental

Building News, Brattleboro, VT

" School children are exposed to many harmful chemicals from building

products

and cleaning compounds. Young children are particularly vulnerable

to these

chemicals. National Healthy Schools Day focuses attention on these

and other

concerns related to health impacts of schools. School children

represent an

investment in our future; it is vitally important for state

education

departments and local school boards to recognize these issues and

work to reduce

risks. "

a.. Deborah Klein , EdD, President, American Public Health

Association,

Washington, DC, www.apha.org

" National Healthy Schools Day is an opportunity to support and

promote healthy

school environments for children and school personnel. Healthy

school

environments are necessary to assure optimal child health and

development of all

school-age children. It is important for local and state health

departments to

work collaboratively with schools to make sure all school

environments are safe

and healthy, and APHA supports policies that minimize environmental

health risks

in our nation's schools. Please join in the celebration of the

National Healthy

Schools Day. "

a.. Eley, Executive Director, Collaborative for High

Performance

Schools (CHPS)

" National Healthy Schools Day is a great opportunity to support the

design,

construction and operation of a new generation of schools that are

thermally,

visually and acoustically comfortable; energy, water and resource

efficient; and

most importantly provide healthy indoor environments for our

children. Healthy

schools have been shown to heighten student and teacher performance

and increase

average daily attendance (ADA). So let's celebrate National Healthy

Schools Day

by working together to build better quality learning environments

that will

improve education and lead to safe, healthy and community-centered

schools. "

a.. Rowson, Director, Center for Asthma and Schools, Indoor

Environments

Division, US Environmental Protection Agency

" Every child deserves to learn in a healthy school environment with

good indoor

air quality. School officials are in a great position to help make

this happen

by using EPA's Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools guidance for

existing or new

schools. If school officials want to go beyond indoor air quality,

they can

assess a broad array of environmental health and safety issues using

EPA's

Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool (HealthySEAT). We hope

that many

school officials will also sponsor a National Healthy Schools Day

event to

highlight what they are doing to provide their students with healthy

learning

environments. "

a.. Dr. Arthur B. Weissman, President and CEO, Green Seal, Inc.

" Green Seal is proud to be able to help schools do what they can to

protect the

health of our children and the environment in which they learn. We

feel it is

critical to make sure our schools use products and practices that

are

environmentally sustainable so as to minimize or eliminate exposure

to toxic

chemicals. It is our hope that National Healthy Schools Day and

School Building

Week will be the catalyst to the adoption of comprehensive green

standards for

schools nationwide. Our children deserve nothing less. "

www.greenseal.org/

a.. Tolle Graham, MA-Healthy Schools Coordinator/MassCOSH,

Dorchester, MA

" On National Healthy Schools Day, MassCOSH and the Healthy Schools

Network will

join

neighbors and parents at the Viet-American Community Center in

Dorchester,

Massachusetts at a

public forum on air quality in our schools and neighborhoods. " If

you can't

breathe, you can't learn.

We must prioritize repairs in schools with high asthma rates and

poor building

conditions so that our children will not be stuck in the achievement

gap. They

deserve better. "

a.. Carolyn -, Chair, National Education Association

Healthy Schools

Caucus, Salem, OR

" Creating environmentally healthy schools is perhaps, the most

important issue

facing our schools

today. No other issue so essentially affects the well being of every

building

occupant whether they

are educators, support personnel, administrators or children. The

lack of

leadership of our

governments and school officials, the lack of understanding of the

truly

devastating health

consequences of exposure to toxins and other unhealthy conditions

and the

unwillingness to accept

responsibility for creating safe, healthy school environments costs

us dearly.

It costs us in the loss

of our teachers and other valuable school employees due to illness,

in the

inflated costs of

maintenance delayed, in loss of productivity and learning and in the

life long

damage to our most

precious school inhabitants, our children. "

a.. Reg Weaver, President, National Education Association,

Washington, DC

" America's students spend the majority of their waking hours in

school

buildings, so we must ensure

that these facilities are conducive to good teaching and learning.

Our

commitment to healthy

schools led us to create the Indoor Air Quality in Schools Program,

which gives

educators the

information and tools needed to identify, prevent and solve indoor

environmental

problems. "

In 2004 the US Department of Education published its first survey of

the

scientific literature showing how decayed school buildings impacted

children's

health and learning. In 2007, the National Academy of Sciences

issued a " Green

Schools " study revealing the robust science behind healthy indoor

environments

in schools and recommending many specific design features to promote

healthy

school buildings. US EPA has an extensive array of schools-focused

programs that

cover Indoor Air, Chemical Clean-outs, pesticides and IPM, Design

Tools for

Schools, Molds, and more. See www.epa.gov/schools

" It's a back to basics message " , said Barnett, founding

Executive

Director of Healthy Schools Network and coordinator of the Coalition

for

Healthier Schools. " No one is shocked that children learn better,

behave better,

and stay healthier with a little fresh air and sunshine indoors. It

just isn't

that difficult to grasp. Healthy schools are good-- for children,

for education,

for health, for environment, for school personnel, and for

communities. "

In Spring 2006, leaders of the national Coalition for Healthier

Schools released

two reports. The first, Lessons Learned: 32 Million Children at

Elevanted

Riusmillio,io, a national collaborative report produced by more than

three dozen

contributors, provides state by state data tables on children at

risk and

assembled local reports on hazards. Who's In Charge?, a research

report prepared

by Healthy Schools Network and consulting pediatrician Jerome

son, MD, of

the Children's National Medical Center at Washington

University, found

stunning gaps in public health research and clinical and other

services that

prevent the risks to children's health from environmental hazards

common to

schools and day care centers.

Healthy Schools Network, Inc. is a national not for profit

organization that

does research, information and education, coalition-building, and

advocacy to

make sure that every child and school employee has an

environmentally healthy

school that is clean and in good repair. Founded more than a decade

ago by

parent, environment, health, education, and labor groups in New

York, it has

shaped and secured child-protective policies at the state and

federal levels,

worked with parents and schools nationwide though its award-winning

Clearinghouse, advised agencies, and fostered new coalitions in

dozens of

locations that are linked through the national Coalition for

Healthier Schools

which provides the platform and the forum for healthy school

environments.

-- 30 -

L. Barnett, Executive Director

Healthy Schools Network, Inc.

518-462-0632

Coordinator, Coalition for Healthier Schools

202-543-7555

www.healthyschools.org

... for children, health, environment, education, communities...