Could Your Classroom
Make You Sick?
What students need to know about school sanitation.
By Claire L. Barnett
TWEENS & TEENS News September 2006
More children than ever suffer from asthma,
and asthma is the nation’s leading cause
of school absenteeism due to chronic illness.
While everyone today seems to know at least
one student with asthma, what most students
do not know is that asthma is also a leading
occupational disease among teachers and custodians.
What are they breathing that leads to asthma
on the job? Is this affecting students, too?
School personnel are breathing indoor air
pollution. And, yes, the pollution affects
students. And, no, no one should be required
to breathe polluted air indoors.
Each day over 53 million schoolchildren and
six million adults, 20 percent of the entire
U.S. population, enter our nation’s
120,000 school buildings to teach and learn.
Unfortunately, in too many cases, they enter
“unclean school buildings” that
undermine education, health and attendance.
The current estimate is that while all 53
million people are at risk, some 32 million
children are at highest risk due to poor conditions
in schools and/or lack of public health protections.
Here’s why. First, adults may have some
form of occupational health protection on
the job, such as a right to know about job
hazards and personal protective gear. When
teens take summer or afterschool jobs on school
grounds, they also have those rights. However,
students actually have no right to a healthy
school nor the knowledge about hazards that
may be affecting their health or learning.
Yet, children in their developing years (birth-age
18) are more vulnerable to environmental hazards
than adults.
Second, many school facilities have been poorly
maintained and thousands of our nation’s
schools remain severely overcrowded. In addition,
schools are often on cheap land, sited next
to industrial plants, on abandoned landfills
or in wetlands. In a recent five-state survey,
more than 1,100 public schools were built
within a half-mile of a toxic waste site.
Toxic chemical and pesticide use, polluted
indoor air, growing molds, lead in paint and
drinking water, asbestos, PCBs in caulking,
and decaying PVC tile floors or fiber glass
ceiling tiles with loose particles are all
factors that impact the health of our nation’s
students and school staff. These problems
contribute to absenteeism, student medication
use, learning difficulties, sick building
syndrome, staff turnover and greater liability
for school districts.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, “Studies show, one-half of our
nation’s 120,000 schools have problems
linked to indoor air quality. Students, teachers
and staff are at greater risk because of the
hours spent in school facilities and because
children are especially susceptible to pollutants.”
Schools are also more densely occupied and
more intensively used than commercial offices
for adults, another contributor to the overall
problem.
This comes at a time when six million school-age
children are afflicted with asthma. According
to the federal Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, approximately 14 million school
days are lost annually as a result of asthma.
The increase in asthma is particularly acute
in urban areas with large numbers of African-American,
Hispanic American and other minority students.
Clear and convincing research shows that improving
school indoor environmental quality, siting
and design; using non-toxic products for cleaning,
maintenance and instruction; providing more
natural daylight; and creating energy-efficient
neighborhood schools with adequate, safe space
for outdoor activities all help protect the
health of school kids. In turn, these changes
help improve public education and create healthier
communities.
Fortunately, there is a powerful, growing
constituency for protecting the health and
learning of our nation’s schoolchildren.
Millions of parents, along with thousands
of organizations, community groups, public
health and professional organizations, school
employees, labor unions and environmental
groups support environmentally safe and healthy
schools, including the parents and teachers
of the seven million children in special education
programs.
Students can take action as well. Student
councils, student newspapers and environmental
clubs represent good groups to organize special
projects to maintain a healthier school. Here’s
how: Form a “Green Squad” or team
to assess the gym, cafeteria, buses, playgrounds
and classrooms for areas to make sanitation
and health improvements. To access more details
about forming such a group, log on to www.nrdc.org/greensquad/.
If you’re curious about the science
of school environments, ask your school nurse
or your local library for a copy of Science-based
Recommendations to Prevent or Reduce Potential
Exposure to Biological, Chemical, and Physical
Agents in Schools (Shendell, et al, Journal
of School Health, December 2004, vol 74, no
10, pp 390-396).
Schools get dirty every day— from all
the in and out traffic, food spills, fingerprints,
scuff marks and other common occurrences in
public places. To clean the building, your
custodians may have been told to use very
strong cleaning chemicals. Strong cleaning
chemicals can affect people’s health
in many ways, including adding to indoor air
pollution.
There are three specific things you as students
can do (for more technical guidance, see the
free, eight-page online Guide to Healthier
Cleaning and Maintenance Practices and Products
at www.healthyschools.org):
1. Find new ways to help keep your school
cleaner day to day which will help reduce
the need for cleaning. For example, do the
doorways have walk-off mats? Are the sidewalks
clean? Are there trash containers near the
doors so that students can drop litter there
and not in the halls? Is food storage and
eating confined to the cafeteria?
2. Find out what cleaning products are being
used and if they are hazardous. Ask to see
the product labels and/or the Material Safety
Data Sheets (MSDS), both of which indicate
human health hazards. If the products contain
serious hazards ents, find out what less toxic
alternatives are available in the marketplace
to replace what is currently being used.
3. Present your research to the facility director
and to the principal, and ask them to switch
to less toxic products. Then help school administrators
keep the school cleaner each day by adopting
your recommendations for mats, trash receptacles,
and food storage and consumption areas.
When your school has successfully switched
to greener, healthier cleaning products, ask
the school board to adopt a Policy Resolution
on Environmental Purchasing.
Remember: Thank your school administrators
for helping to make your school a healthier
place for all students and staff!
Claire L. Barnett is the founding executive
of the organization that advocates for healthier
and cleaner schools for all children. Healthy
Schools Network’s Clearinghouse of guides
and reports provide user-friendly tips for
how to find and fix environmental health hazards
at school and in daycare settings. In addition,
GREEN SQUAD, an environmental education program
targeting middle schoolers (online, in English
and Spanish) was jointly created with the
Natural Resources Defense Council to help
students take steps to improve their own school
environment.
