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Tag: Environmental Issues

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EPA, 2009.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created the Indoor Air Quality  Tools for Schools (IAQ Tools for Schools) Program to help schools assess and improve indoor air quality (IAQ). IAQ is becoming an increasingly important issue in our nation’s schools. Approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population—nearly 56 million people—spend their days inside elementary and secondary schools. Good IAQ assists schools with their core mission—educating children. The background information and activities in this voluntary program are directed toward existing schools in the kindergarten through twelfth grade range, but colleges, universities, preschool, and day-care centers could benefit by applying the principles and activities presented.

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Zepatou, Loizidoe, Chaloulakou, & Spyrellis, 2016

Effective building environment sustainability frameworks and practices need to take users’ opinions into account. For this purpose, a survey questionnaire was developed and the “Panhellenic survey of school spaces, materials and environmental-comfort conditions in secondary schools and perceptions, stances and attitudes of pupils, teachers, principals and parents towards sustainable construction and the selection and use of materials in schools that are friendly to the environment and human health” was conducted nationwide with a random stratified sample of 170 Hellenic public secondary schools. Selected findings are presented and discussed here. These show that existing school facilities are primarily rated as good and that selection and use of materials friendly to the environment and human health are extremely important. User groups believe that they should participate in planning/selecting sustainable solutions for schools. An Index of 10 School Environment Desired Outcomes associated with environmentally friendly and health-friendly materials selection and use was devised. Relevant factors were extracted and interpreted. The research establishes users’ subjective opinions that may be considered and integrated into procedures for improving school buildings, assessing and selecting environmentally friendly materials and implementing strategies for sustainable school design, building and operation.

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Regional Asthma Management & Prevention (RAMP) & California School-Based Health Alliance, 2015.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by recurrent episodes of wheezing, shortness of breath, and coughing. Asthma symptoms are triggered by a variety of environmental factors: allergens like pollens and cockroaches or irritants like tobacco smoke and air pollution. These environmental asthma triggers cause inflammation, obstruction, and constriction of the lungs’ airways making it difficult—and sometimes impossible—to breathe. Reducing or eliminating exposure to these triggers can improve a patient’s ability to manage their asthma symptoms.

Although there is a broad array of evidence-based interventions to address asthma triggers, many people with asthma continue to be exposed to the factors that make their asthma worse. School-based health centers (SBHCs) are uniquely positioned to address this gap in order to help children breathe easier. While many SBHCs across the country are already playing a key role in helping students manage their asthma by providing quality clinical care and education, there is an opportunity for SBHCs to also be leaders in managing the environmental factors that make asthma worse. This guide describes the types of interventions that SBHC staff can initiate or support to reduce exposure to environmental asthma triggers.

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EPA, 2015.

EPA’s IAQ Tools for Schools guidance has been implemented successfully in tens of thousands of schools nationwide. The Framework for Effective School IAQ Management synthesizes the accumulated learning of more than 800 schools involved in a national survey of IAQ management practices; 200 applicants for IAQ Tools for Schools awards; and in- depth interviews, site visits and analysis of five faculty school districts. The Framework provides a common language
to describe the drivers of IAQ program success; detailed guidance on the proven strategies, organizational approaches, and leadership styles that are fundamental to program effectiveness; and a clear vision of the pathway to school IAQ excellence. Its highly flexible and adaptable structure allows any school, regardless of location, size, budget or condition, to use the Framework to launch, reinvigorate and sustain an effective IAQ management program.

The Framework: Key Drivers

The Six Key Drivers are the essential elements of effective and enduring IAQ management programs. Applying a cycle of continuous assessment, planning, action and evaluation, the Six Key Drivers work synergistically to deliver effective school IAQ management programs. The Six Key Drivers are:

  • Organize for success;
  • Communicate with everyone, all the time;
  • Assess your environments continuously;
  • Plan your short- and long-term activities;
  • Act to address structural, institutional and behavioral issues, and
  • Evaluate your results for continuous improvement.The Framework: Technical SolutionsThe Six Technical Solutions define the most common issues that schools need to address to effectively manage IAQ risks. When addressed systematically
    and aggressively, an IAQ program that focuses on the Six Technical Solutions will deliver a healthier school environment. The Six Technical Solutions are grounded in the IAQ Tools for Schools Action Kit, the Center for Disease Control’s School Health Policies and Programs Study and the management practices of leading school IAQ programs.

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United States Environmental Protection Agency

Teachers play an important role in promoting good IAQ in their classrooms. This checklist can help in:

  • maintaining general classroom cleanliness
  • managing animals in the classroom
  • reducing moisture sources
  • taking other preventative actions to ensure a healthy learning environment

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Environmental Law Institute, 2016.

Energy efficiency continues to be an important component of federal, state, and local efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. School facility upgrades that increase energy efficiency can help school districts advance their educational mission by reducing energy and other operating costs. Facility upgrades that protect and improve indoor air quality (IAQ) also support the core mission of schools by promoting staff and student health, productivity, and attendance. There is now broad recognition that it is possible to achieve both energy efficiency and indoor air quality goals as part of a school retrofit project. When undertaking energy efficiency and other facility upgrades, early consideration of IAQ issues can help schools avoid unintended, negative consequences and reap the twin benefits of energy savings and a healthier, more productive school environment.

State laws, regulations, and guidance can facilitate the integration of IAQ and energy efficiency goals. This report discusses three areas of potential policy development: state funding for school facility upgrades, energy savings performance contracting, and regulation of indoor pollutants during renovation. While these are not the only policy areas ripe for consideration, the examples described throughout the report reflect a variety of strategies for maximizing the health benefits of energy retrofits and other school facility upgrades.

State Funding for School Facility Upgrades

States operate a variety of programs that provide grants, loans, and other financing for school energy efficiency retrofits and other facility upgrades, and these programs are particularly important for school districts that have limited resources for capital-intensive measures. Currently there are few state funding programs that affirmatively require or encourage the integration of IAQ and energy goals, however the report highlights examples of policy strategies that have been adopted and could be expanded in the future. These include:

  •  Establishing energy-related IAQ improvements as allowable or priority uses of energy efficiency funding;
  •  Considering non-energy benefits, such as enhanced IAQ, in awarding energy-efficiency funding; and
  •  Establishing IAQ measures as priorities for general school renovation and repair programs.

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Published on

Environmental Law Institute, 2015.

Early care and education programs play an important role in helping children reach their full potential in school and throughout their lives. Six million children under five years old receive care outside of their homes – about 30 percent of all children in this age group.1 The facilities that provide this care are numerous and diverse, including approximately 300,000 licensed child care centers and child care homes across the country.2 As the number of children in licensed child care has grown, so has public recognition of the importance of the child care setting to children’s physical, emotional, and intellectual development.

This recognition has led to significant changes in standards of quality for licensed child care programs. Standards currently in place throughout the U.S. cover a wide array of elements for ensuring a healthy, safe, and enriching environment – from caregiver qualifications and program curriculum, to fire safety and nutrition. In recent years, facility standards for child care have begun to address exposure to environmental hazards as well. This shift reflects greater scientific knowledge of the potential harm to children’s health from exposure to environmental contaminants, as well as the availability of well-established facility operation and maintenance practices that can be put in place to help create healthier indoor environments.

The purpose of this report is to provide information to help states strengthen their laws, regulations, and programs to address indoor environmental contaminants in child care facilities. The report is designed for policymakers, agency officials, non-governmental organizations and associations, and others who work to promote quality child care and advance children’s health. The following chapters offer an overview of how policies currently address several key indoor environmental quality (IEQ) issues in licensed child care facilities. For each issue, the report highlights examples of policy strategies for states to consider, along with notable non-regulatory initiatives that are being implemented by state agencies.

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