Health and Safety in Schools

HAZARDS AT SCHOOL — BEYOND SPITBALLS, BULLIES AND CLIQUES
A Good Learning Environment Requires Health and Safety in Schools

Whether we're in the middle of the annual argument about clothes—"Mom, I will NOT wear THAT to school this fall"—or we're proudly reviewing our child's report card, making sure our kids get a good education is important to all of us.

We usually take it for granted that their learning environment will be clean and safe, but some school districts could be doing a better job. Here's a list of things to check into to make sure your school isn't poisoning bodies at the same time it's nurturing minds.

Health and Safety in Schools

1. INDOOR AIR QUALITY

Studies done by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicate that indoor levels of pollutants may be 2-5 times higher—and occasionally more than 100 times higher—than outdoor levels of pollutants.

Over the past several decades, exposure to indoor air pollutants has increased due to a variety of factors, including:

• buildings being built "tighter" and ventilation systems using a lower percentage of fresh air (both of which are done to keep energy costs down);
• the use of synthetic building materials and furnishings, which off-gas pollutants;
• people's use of chemically-formulated personal care products and cleaning supplies, which also send molecules of pollution into our breathing air;
• applications of chemical pesticides inside buildings.

Risk studies performed by EPA have consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental health risks to the public. Students spend most of their at-school time inside the school building, so indoor air quality is an area that school administrators should be checking up on.

To get more background on indoor air quality in schools, see the EPA web page on the subject. If you're interested in talking to your school about it, the EPA web site has a number of checklists for school teachers, administrators, and maintenance personnel (see left-side blue panel). It would be good to familiarize yourself with some of these, or to at least print them out and take them with you.

School Health and Safety

2. PESTICIDES

As noted in Section 1, chemical pesticides can be an air contaminant, but they can also cause trouble if kids get them on their skin. While we certainly don't want kids being contaminated with pesticides, we also don't want to have cockroaches, ants, and rats learning the three R's right alongside them, so what do we do?

The solution is "integrated pest management," which is a systematic approach to pest control designed to minimize (but not necessarily eliminate) the use of chemical pesticides. The concept favors physical barriers, better sanitation, and least-toxic pesticides first; and only if those steps fail are more potent chemicals used. The net result is fewer toxic molecules in your child's learning environment.

Your school may assure you that the pesticides they use are safe, but that is not enough. Many pesticides approved for use by the EPA are NOT safe (or have not been sufficiently evaluated to warrant a safety claim). Young, developing bodies are particularly at risk from exposure to pesticides. You can get more information on how to tackle this problem by visiting Beyond Pesticides' Children and Schools page.

Health and Safety in School

3. HEALTHY FOOD

While we're on the subject of pesticides, is there any chance that your school district offers organic food? Probably not.

Is that important? You decide: A University of Washington study found that children fed mostly organic produce and juice had only one-sixth the level of organophosphate pesticide byproducts in their urine compared to children who ate conventionally grown foods. The difference was statistically significant, with the children who ate conventional diets having levels above the amount considered to be "negligible risk" by the EPA but the children who ate mostly organic diets having levels below the negligible-risk threshold.

If you're interested in trying to convince your school district's administrators to consider adding some proportion of organic food to their fare, check out our article Healthy School Lunch – The Organic Version, as well as the Organic Trade Association's organic food recipes.

You can also, of course, just make sure you're packing nutritious organic foods in your kids' lunchboxes. Helpful links:

• Mission: School Lunch (from Organic Valley)
• Helping Kids Eat Smart (from DrGreene.com)

Health & Safety in Schools

4. SAFE BUSES

Does your child's school bus have seat belts? We hope so, but it wasn't that long ago that the answer was often "no." Fortunately, that's been changing.

Something that has been slower to change is the use of dirty diesel-powered school buses. That cloud of black smoke coming out of a bus's tailpipe isn't just an eyesore, it's an airborne witch's brew of toxic chemicals. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), diesel pollution has been linked to increased asthma rates, missed school days, hospitalizations, chronic bronchitis, heart disease, cancer, and even premature death.

Children can be exposed to buses' diesel exhaust while in transit or while buses are sitting in front of the school idling. The long-term solution to the problem is for school districts to purchase less-polluting types of buses, but short-term solutions include making sure buses minimize their idling time in front of schools.

New, cleaner diesel fuel will help lessen emissions, but cleaner fuel won't make older buses "clean"—they'll still need to be retrofitted (or retired).

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Chemical-Free Kids:
How to Safeguard Your Child's Diet and Environment

Asthma, chronic allergies, digestive ailments, learning and behavioral difficulties—these and many more problems seem to be epidemic among our children. Many of these problems may be largely attributable to a diet of heavily processed, chemical-laden foods and exposures to a host of toxic agents present in everyday products. Chemical-Free Kids will help you reduce your children's exposure to harmful substances and assure them of a happier, healthier future.

"If you want one year of prosperity, plant corn. If you want ten years of prosperity, plant trees. If you want one hundred years of prosperity, educate people."

— Chinese proverb