APHA Final Draft Adopted Policy on School Facilities, January 2001
"Creating Healthier School Facilities"
THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION,
Recognizing the importance of including of all children in all environmental policymaking;1 and
Recognizing the need to support global, federal, state, and local policies that
promote healthy environments for children, that prevent exposures to environmental
hazards, that provide for a parent right to know about hazards, and that promote multidisciplinary research on the effects of exposures on children;2 and
Recognizing that more than $250 billion is needed to repair or upgrade America’s
school facilities to good condition;3-6 and
Understanding that other school facility problems include inadequate plumbing,
lead, radon, mold and moisture, asbestos, poor lighting, and acoustics;7,8 and noting that
the lowest income students are in the schools in the worst condition;9-11 and
Recognizing that the US Government Accounting Office has reported that while
children are compelled to attend school, it has estimated that 15,000 schools in the United
States have indoor air pollution or ventilation problems affecting over 11 million
children;12-15 and
Noting that schools are purchasers of a wide array of hazardous cleaning and
instructional supplies that can contribute to indoor pollution affecting health;16-20 that
pollution prevention is the national environmental policy of the United States;21 and that
no federal guideline or program has been established to promote pollution prevention
purchasing for materials and supplies used by schools; and
Further noting that although at least 30 states have moved to curb pesticide
exposures at school;22 that school use of pesticides is a significant environmental hazard
causing about 2,300 pesticide-related exposures at school between 1993 and 1996;23-27
that there are no federal requirements for schools to reduce children’s school-based
exposures to multiple-risk pesticides, including chemical carcinogens, and toxins to the
reproductive, endocrine, brain and nervous systems;28-31 and
Recognizing that model building codes and industry ventilation standards are being
developed without the inputs of the public health sector and therefore without protections
specifically referencing children at school;32 and
Noting that programs of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s are available to
improve school facilities, including Tools for Schools and the Energy Star Program, are
not in wide use by schools nationally;33 and
Understanding that states and local school districts need billions of dollars to
construct and repair school infrastructure and thus have an opportunity to advance
healthier school facility siting, design, and construction;34 and
Understanding that there is a federal requirement for public schools to evaluate all
children K-12 with suspected educational disabilities, and that the US Department of
Education is not spending educational research dollars on studies on the effect of indoor
pollutants or other environmental factors on student health, learning, or behavior
problems;35,36 and
Noting that the US Department of Education is not actively participating in the
federal Committee on Indoor Air Quality nor actively participating in the federal interagency task force on children’s environmental health and safety as required by federal
executive order;37
Therefore, APHA concludes that
• Every child and school employee should have a right to an environmentally safe
and healthy school that is clean and in good repair;
• Federal funds should be appropriated to construct and renovate schools, with
priorities placed on improving facility environmental conditions;
• Federal, state, and local entities must work together to use resources effectively
and efficiently to address school siting, construction, maintenance, and other practices to
ensure the provision of an environmentally safe and healthy school;
• Parents and personnel should have a right to know about environmental health
hazards and threats in the school environment;
• Schools be required to follow pollution prevention principles for infrastructure
siting, construction, maintenance, and other practices that reduce or eliminate children's
exposures that affect health, learning, or behavior; and
• The federal inter-agency task force on children's environmental health work
collaboratively with the U.S. Department of Education to create a system for the
prevention, research, evaluation, and reporting of children's school-based exposures that
affect health, learning, and behavior; therefore, APHA
1. Urges the U.S. Department of Education to work with the U.S. EPA on guidelines
it has underway for the design, siting, and construction of new schools, and to work with
other federal agencies in the federal inter-agency task force on child environmental health
and in the federal committee on indoor air quality.
2. Advocates for federal funds for further research on the extend and impact of
children's environmental health and safety risks and exposures at schools and prevention
measures, including research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.
3. Supports measures that provide a parent right to know about children's exposure
to environmental hazards at school.
4. Supports the School Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) that would require
schools to follow least-toxic pesticide practices and provide prior notice to parents and
personnel of certain pesticide applications, and as a ppropriate, supports other federal
legislation designed to promote environmentally responsible purchasing by schools.
5. Supports federal funding for school construction and in support of targeting
federal funds to the remediation of school environmental health hazards, especially in
high-needs schools serving low-income children and health-impaired or other identified
high-risk students.
6. Encourages APHA affiliates to advocate for and to support state and local funding
and programs to protect students and personnel from environmental health hazards at
school.
References
1. APHA Policy Statement 9511. APHA Policy Statements; 1948–present,
cumulative. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association.
2. See 1.
3. Modernizing Our Schools: What Will It Cost. National Education Association,
April 2000.
4 Condition of America’s Schools, US Government Accounting Office. HEHS 9561, February 1995.
5. The nation’s single largest school district estimated its own need for school
facility construction at $11 billion November 1998, but did not include remediating
drinking water or indoor air, or lead abatement. New York, NY: Board of Education,
Division of Facilities, November 1998.
6. Los Angeles Unified School District investigates its own Environmental Health
and Safety Branch and found staff pressured by school officials to underreport lead and
asbestos problems, as reported by Los Angles Times, September, 29, 1999.
7. See 3.
8. Lead Hazards in California’s Public Elementary School and Child Care Facilities:
Report to the State Legislature, California Department of Health Services, Division of
Environmental and Occupational Disease Control, April 1998, estimating 77% of schools
and centers have been painted with lead-based paints, and 18% of schools have lead in
drinking water at or above federal action levels.
9. See 3.
10. America’s Schools Report Differing Conditions, US Government Accounting
Office, HEHS 96-03. June 1996.
11. Report of the Advisory on School Environmental Quality, 1994, and
Recommendations of the Facilities Advisory Committee 1995-96 and 1996-97. New
York State Board of Regents.
12. See 3.
13. The American Lung Association estimates 10 million lost school days annually
to asthma, the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic disease. School IAQ is
a core program for all ALA affiliates.
14. Tools for Schools, US Environmental Protection Agency, a voluntary program
for schools to improve indoor air states that indoor levels of pollutants may be 2-5 times
(and sometimes 100 times) higher than outdoor levels, and that most people spend 90%
of their time indoors. It also notes that children are especially susceptible to air pollution
and ranks indoor air pollution among the top four environmental health risks to the
public.
15. An Introduction for Health Professionals. Washington, DC: US Environmental
Protection Agency. Handbook of Pediatric Environmental Health, American Academy of
Pediatrics, 1999.
16. Toxic Chemical Exposures in Schools: Our Children At Risk; Vermont Public
Interest Research Group, March 1998. Chemical Use Reduction for Improved Air Quality
in Schools, Office of Technical Assistance for Toxics Use Reduction, Executive Office of
Environmental Affairs, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, May 1999. Healthier Cleaning
& Maintenance: Practices and Products for Schools, Healthy Schools Network and NYS
Assn. for Superintendents of School Buildings and Grounds, 1999.
17. APHA Policy 9606. APHA Policy Statements; 1948–present, cumulative.
Washington, DC: American Public Health Association.
18. See 14.
19. What School Nurses Know, preliminary survey report, New York State
Association of School Nurses, May 2000.
20. Neglected Buildings, Damaged Health: Snapshot of New York City School
Conditions. Advocates for Children of New York. October 1999.
21. Federal Pollution Prevention Act. US EPA, Office of Pollution Prevention and
Toxics, 1990.
22. Schooling of State Pesticide Laws, Beyond Pesticides/National Coalition
Against the Misuse of Pesticides. Pesticides and You, 1999;18(3).
23. Pesticides: Use, Effects, and Alternatives to Pesticides in Schools, US
Government Accounting Office, RCED-00-November 17, 1999.
24. Unintended Casualties: Five Children Whose Lives Were Profoundly Affected
by Pesticide Exposures at School, Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides,
April 2000.
25. Pesticides and National Strategies for Health Care Providers, workshop
proceedings, April 1998.
26. Posner, M. Preventing School Injuries: A Comprehensive Guide for School
Administrators, Teachers, and Staff. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press,
2000.
27. Recognition and Management of Pesticide Poisonings. 5th edition. Washington,
DC: US Environmental Protection Agency. March 1999.
28. Mott et al. Our Children At Risk: The 5 Worst Environmental Threats to Their
Health. Natural Resources Defense Council, 1997
29. Environmental Health Threats to Children. Washington, DC: US Environmental
Protection Agency. 1996.
30. Gurunathan, et al. Accumulation of chlorpyrifos on residential surfaces and toys
accessible to children. Env. Health Perspec. 1998;106(1). Lu and Fenske, Dermal transfer
of chlorpyrifos residues from residential surfaces. Env. Health Perspec. 1999;107(6).
Davis and Ahmed. Exposures from indoor spraying of chlorpyrifos pose greater health
risks to children than currently estimated. Env. Health Perspec. 1998;106(6).
31. Parents Urged To Be Watchdogs on Pesticides, New York Times, June 15, 2000;
Schools in New York Overuse Pesticides and Fail to Issue Warnings, New York Times,
June 14, 2000. Reports from Attorney Generals in Connecticut and New York.
32. APHA Policy Statement 9916. APHA Policy Statements; 1948–present,
cumulative. Washington, DC: American Public Health Association.
33. US EPA and American Lung Association (staff communication with author).
34. Sustainable America: A New Consensus. The President’s Council on Sustainable
Development, 1996. High Performance Building Guidelines. City of New York
Department of Design and Construction, April 1999.
35. Federal Individual with Disabilities Education Act. PL 94-142, 1975; also
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
36. US Department of Education web site and search for priorities and funded
research.
37. Lack of participation long noted by other federal agencies, and subject of a
coalition letter to USD Education (June 2000).