Increasing Concerns About School Indoor Air Quality

We all know what to do when the TV weatherman issues a Code Red air pollution warning: Stay indoors if at all possible. What we may not know is that the air indoors—especially in our schools —can be just as bad as the air outside, perhaps worse. For the administrators and policy makers of our public schools, this is especially critical news.

• FACT: One of five Americans spends at least part of the day in a school building.
• FACT: The number of children with asthma increased by 60 percent in the 1980s; poor interior air quality can trigger asthmatic episodes.
• FACT: Many interior air quality problems can be pre vented or alleviated at little expense by teachers, administrators and staff working together as an IAQ team. Students can get involved, too.
• FACT: IAQ and energy efficiency can be directly related, and addressing one does not have to compromise the other.

In February 1995, the U.S. Government Accounting Office released a survey indicating that more than half of U.S. schools have problems that affect interior air quality. While your school district may not have facilities that qualify as "sick buildings," it is likely that the IAQ in some of your schools is not conducive to a healthy, productive learning and teaching environment.

Why do schools fall short on indoor air quality?

Many school buildings, including brand new ones, were not designed with good interior air quality in mind. Shrinking budgets and rising enrollments work to the detriment of IAQ as school boards trim expenditures by deferring school maintenance and repairs.

In addition, school personnel may simply be unaware of the effect that certain housekeeping/maintenance procedures have on IAQ.

Schools also have special characteristics generally not shared by other public facilities and office buildings. For example:

• Schools have four times the number of occupants per square foot as offices.
• Schools contain a variety of pollution sources, such as lab chemicals, cleaning supplies, chalk dust and molds.
• Schools often have aging and inefficient HVAC systems with differing performance needs and inadequate funding for repairs.
• Many open space schools of the 1970s and 1980s have been renovated to use the space more efficiently, which often upsets the intended ventilation flow.

In recent years, comparative risk studies performed by EPA’s Science Advisory Board have consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health. Good interior air quality is a very important component of a healthy indoor environment and helps schools reach their primary goal—educating students.

Failure to respond promptly and effectively to interior air quality problems can have serious consequences, including asthma episodes and allergic reactions, accelerated deterioration of the physical plant, increased risk of school closures and reduced productivity of teachers and staff due to discomfort, sickness or absenteeism.

Finding Solutions

Once interior air quality problems are brought to your attention, the solutions fall into two categories: the management of pollutant sources and the use of ventilation for pollutant control. Both can be handled quite readily. Let’s look at how one school district handled typical reallife interior air quality situations: