School Bus and Auto Idling at School

If you’re at a school either before or after school, a familiar sight is that of lines of school buses and private autos lined up outside dropping off or picking up students. In Cincinnati, Ohio, the University of Cincinnati does a lot of research on environmental health. In Cincinnati, about 1 in 4 school-age children suffer from asthma. (We have a similar rate of asthma here in North Texas, which is high and continues to climb). The University of Cincinnati has a research project underway in conjunction with the Cincinnati Health Department and Cincinnati Public schools to help reduce asthma in the community. This research project’s goal is determine how idling school buses and proximity to busy roadways affects the incidence of asthma in school-age children. This is being studied in order to provide information to policy makers and public health officials regarding the extent of pollutants from idling school buses in order to guide policy decisions. (Research shows asthma is triggered by proximity to particulates from diesel emissions. The incidence of asthma attacks rise when school buses idle at schools, and also when schools are near major roadways.)
The research will occur in two stages. During the first stages, students with asthma will have the air sampled both at their school and home neighborhood. Both indoor and outdoor sampling will be done, and the school sampling will include areas near entrances, and in classrooms. In the second stage of the study, an anti-idling campaign will take place, with air sampling at that time. The children will have medical information taken at both stages. There is also an education component that will be at work in order to educate teachers, school nurses, bus drivers, and school administration about how to reduce the health hazards of bus and auto idling.
In green building, we talk about how air pollution is detrimental to the success of students. Air inside a school is never as good (clean) as air outside a school. So if outside air is polluted how will schools be able to provide a healthy indoor environment?
In another way of creating a solution for the problem of school bus idling, LEED for Schools provides a point for bike racks and for building where there are bike routes to school which avoid busy streets.
Also at work on the subject of school bus idling and Outdoor Air Quality (OAQ) is the American Lung Association (ALA). In North Texas, ALA has been lobbying the state legislature to pass a school bus anti-idling law. ALA is also working to educate teachers and administrators on how to limit outdoor time for students on bad OAQ (Outdoor Air Quality) days.
If you want to help the students at your school reduce absenteeism from asthma and other respiratory problems, try instigating a District-wide Indoor and Outdoor Air Quality program. Also contact your state and federal legislators to impress upon them the importance of supporting these measures.
http://healthnews.uc.edu
www.ala.org
www.usgbc.org

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.