Children are at Higher Risk

Imagine an invisible, toxic cloud that hangs two and a half to three feet off the ground. Imagine it’s in homes and in public buildings, including schools. Imagine the better-built these buildings are from an energy conservation standpoint (more air-tight), the more the gas collects.

Now let’s picture children about three feet tall going about their daily activities in this cloud. They stand, walk, and even run in the cloud. They sit at their desks in the cloud, and at library and cafeteria tables. Because proportionately they breathe more than adults due to their body mass to lung size ratio, they take in more of this gas. This gas is not imaginary, nor is the scenario. The gas is called formaldehyde and it’s classified as a carcinogen by the EPA and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) among others. We all live in this cloud every day, however, the ones who are most affected by the cloud are the most vulnerable of our population, the very young.

Where does formaldehyde come from? It’s contained in many products, materials, finishes, and furnishings. It’s used in particle board, wafer board or OSB (oriented strand board), and plywood, which is used for floor underlayment, backing in walls, and roof decking. Particle board is also used in most of today’s furniture. A few places you’ll see particle board is in cabinetry, paneling, shelving, desks, tables, chairs – anything that isn’t real wood all the way through - most likely has a wood or “photo wood” veneer with a particle board interior. It’s used in plastic products. Carpet has formaldehyde, as well as sheet vinyl, “pergo-style” wood laminate flooring, vinyl wallpaper, and paints. It’s found in fabrics and used in furniture production. So your child’s sleepwear, sheets, and bed all contain formaldehyde, as well as the furniture at school and at home. That “new home” “new car” “new furniture” and “new carpet” smell is in large part the smell of formaldehyde.

What to do? Build green for starters. Green buildings, when under construction and when brand-new, don’t have a “new building” smell. There are many differences in a LEED® or CHPS building, for example, than a typical building. There are also other rating systems that will produce results (Energy Star although it is not specific to IAQ). Open the doors and windows every day for half an hour or whatever is practical in order to exchange air until you can provide better air circulation. Get rid of particle-board laden furniture. Remove carpets and replace with hard surfaces that don’t contain formaldehyde. When purchasing rugs, purchase “real” fiber rugs like wool, cotton, or jute. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems should be designed to bring in fresh air from outside, and to exhaust stale air. There are some increasingly sophisticated ways to pull in pre-heated or pre-cooled air in HVAC systems. All green building standards recognize the importance of maximizing the quality of inside air.

You can purchase a formaldehyde test kit online. The kit will have information on safe and unsafe levels of formaldehyde so you will be able to interpret test results.

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/MMG/MMG.asp?id=216&tid=39
http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/iris_drafts/recordisplay.cfm?deid=223614
Formaldehyde Exposure Among Children: A Potential Building Block of Asthma. Environmental Health Protection 118:313–317; McGwin et al.
Goldmacher VS, Thilly WG. Formaldehyde is mutagenic for cultured human cells. Mutat. Res. 1983;116:417-422.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/formaldehyde#r1

Three Easy Things

Do you know anyone with asthma or allergies? You most likely do. Here in Texas one in four children, on average, suffers from asthma. As we discuss Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) there are some easy solutions to begin your school’s journey to provide a healthy environment. To alleviate anxiety while we journey through the world of healthy schools, here are some easy solutions.

First step: get rid of air fresheners. Think of it this way. One of the things you’re going to start doing is paying attention to smells in your school. People who have asthma and allergies can have serious problems, and even be hospitalized, by things that are in our environment for no other reason than to “smell good”. On a microscopic level anything that smells is emitting molecules of that particular smell. As the air freshener disappears, those molecules are floating in the air, waiting to inflame the lungs of innocent passers-by. You want the air in your school to be neutral. If you’re masking another smell then you’re going to need to treat the source of the smell. In IEQ lingo, that’s called “source control”.

Second step: More source control: Keep it clean. The three most common sources of indoor air contamination are dust mites, cat dander, and cockroach droppings. Dust mites and cockroach droppings are typically generated on-site, while cat dander is coming to school on clothing and personal belongings like backpacks. Doctors who specialize in allergies and organizations like the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America www.aafa.org and the American Asthma Foundation www.americanasthmafoundation.org have information to help you develop an asthma action plan. In the meantime you’ll want to clean often and clean deep. This means you want to keep your school clutter-free so your facilities and maintenance staff can do their jobs. You’ll then want to clean soft surfaces, (at some point reducing soft surfaces) cleaning window coverings, cleaning horizontal surfaces (including mini-blinds), and steam-cleaning carpets, if you have them. (Eventually you’ll want to take a serious look at removing carpet.)

If you need to keep soft surfaces in parts of your building, there are steps you can take to help. For example, in kindergarten classes there tend to be stuffed animals, curtains, soft chairs, and carpeting. Wash the stuffed animals often, wash curtains often, and steam clean carpets and fabric furniture.

Third step: more source control: look in places like art studios, shop classes, science classes and science prep areas, janitor closets, and kitchens. Many teachers like to keep cleaning products in their classrooms. Reduce the number and quantity of chemicals in your school. Research a green cleaning protocol.

Your school district may want to begin a comprehensive IEQ program. If so, start by gaining consensus from parents, teachers, students, and administration.

Introduction and Indoor Environmental Quality

My name is Karen Benson and I've been interested in and involved in green building since the early 80's. I'm excited about helping the American Clearinghouse on Educational Facilities spread the word about ways to increase Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in schools. Part of the purpose of this blog is dedicated to answering questions about school IEQ and IAQ, so please feel free to ask questions.

Q: What's the deal with IEQ and IAQ and why should anyone care?
A: Numerous studies connect learning, teacher retention, abseenteeism, and test scores with IEQ. Twenty percent of the population of the United States spends their day in a school. That translates into a lot of opportunity to breathe either good or bad air. Think back on what your school smelled like - I'm remmbering some funny smells in the schools I attended. Funny smells = particulate matter in the air. Newer schools don't have asbestos or lead paint, but they are much more air-tight, and some of the materials they're constructed or furnished with can be hazardous to human health. A statistic commonly cited is that indoor air quality can be two to seven times worse than outdoor air quality. (Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/ .)

Next: Children are at a disadvantage when it comes to Indoor Environmental Quality. And 3 simple ways to increase your schools' IAQ.