If your kid is sick of (or at) school, it may just be the building

“Asthma hospitalizations triple when schools start up again in the fall,” reports Andrew Ellsworth of the new Healthy Schools Collaboration; that’s partly due to paints, sealants, duct work and other maintenance performed over the summer and still leaking fumes and other materials into the air.

“If we can do something to minimize that impact and not see that bump in the fall,” says Ellsworth, the Collaboration will be doing its job.

The program, funded by The Heinz Endowments, will help school districts institute new cleaning and maintenance practices, teaming and training teachers, staff, kids and the community to become educated on the issue and providing some materials and expert advice.

The pilot effort targets the McKeesport Area and Allegheny Valley school districts. “We wanted to serve districts that had fewer resources,” Ellsworth explains. “They are the ones who tend to have more challenges with environmental health issues,” thanks to a shrinking student population and tax base that does not allow for some of the needed building renovation and maintenance to avoid health risks like moisture and mold.

McKeesport, for instance, as a former mill town was a “booming metropolis, in a sense, prior to the collapse of the steel industry,” he says, so the city has to manage lots of infrastructure. Allegheny Valley encompasses Springdale and Cheswick, which still have major manufacturing. “They are home to a number of facilities, including a coal-fired power plant that is literally next to the high school … and another power plant up the river,” Ellsworth point out. “And those are a factor for student health issues.”

Healthy Schools Collaboration will help each district identify what can be done with a low investment, such as:

• Substituting green housekeeping products for the myriad chemical floor cleaners, hand soaps and disinfectants schools employ. “They can have a large impact, because there is such a large quantity of them applied daily,” he says.
• Creating better chemical maintenance to prevent potential spills and to keep students from getting access to the supplies.
• Reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides in the building and substituting less toxic substances.
• Preventing vehicle exhaust from coming into school buildings and reducing the idling of diesel buses outside the school as children exit schools at the end of the day.

All of this may have a negligible increase in initial costs for a district but will reduce the amount of supplies they need to buy, those shrinking their costs overall.

The initial phase of the Collaboration will last through the end of this school year. “We’re really excited that these schools have stepped forward to tackle these issues,” concludes Ellsworth. “We want them to be able to implement policies for how they’re going to create a safer and healthier environment.”

Writer: Marty Levine

Source: Andrew Ellsworth of the new Healthy Schools Collaboration