Mandate More Fresh Air in Schools - To Make Kids "Smarter"
- by: Susan V
- recipient: EPA and Congress
According to Alternet, a new study shows time spent indoors can make us “stupid.” That’s because indoor air is usually full of neurotoxins, including in schools.
Conducted by Harvard School of Public Health, the study says normal indoor air has high carbon dioxide and lots of toxic fumes from vinyl floors, plastics, newspapers, etc. And to makes matters worse, ventilation is usually inadequate.
The study compared how well participants performed on cognitive tests after spending hours in conventional versus “green building” environments and found much better performance after time spent in the latter - and when "green" environments were ventilated with outdoor fresh air, test results were even better - much better.
For years EPA has provided tips on improving indoor air in schools, but still new schools are being built with windows that never open and even on superfund sites. Schools, in particular, should care about kids getting fresh air. After all, what’s the point of having the best teachers and technology if students' brains are being numbed by toxic fumes?
This new evidence of the ill effects of too little fresh air on cognitive function calls for a stricter approach to improving air quality in schools. All new schools should be built as green buildings on non-toxic sites, with windows that open. And all schools should use the least toxic furnishings and products available.
Sign this petition to insist EPA mandate that school kids get more fresh air.
We, the undersigned, agree EPA needs to do more than just recommend improvements for indoor air quality in schools.
Environmental Health Prospectives noted in a 2011 report that “Fifty-three million U.S. children and 6 million employees spend much of the day in a public or private school.” And EPA notes that children are far more vulnerable to the effects of breathing indoor pollutants because they “breathe more air…in proportion to their body weight than adults.”
Even though EPA has spent years providing schools with resources like “Tools for Schools” on ways they can improve indoor air quality, schools still often focus on saving short term costs at the expense of long-term adverse effects on health and learning.
EHP, which also reported the new study on indoor air, noted in 2011 that pollution problems at schools building sites were “so widespread that the Congress mandated in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) develop model guidelines for choosing healthier sites for new schools,” and “On 17 November 2010, the agency released a draft of its new voluntary guidelines.”
But just as the guidelines EPA set to discourage schools from building on Superfund sites allowed “too much wiggle room," according Center for Health, Environment & Justice science director Stephen Lester, EPA’s recommendations for indoor air improvements are not being taken seriously enough.
In addition to cutting down on polluting products used in schools, building schools on non-toxic sites and with windows that open, school children need to get outside more during the day and breathe as much fresh air as possible to help their brains work better.
We ask Congress and the EPA to work together to improve indoor air quality in schools to improve the quality of learning. Giving kids more fresh air will not just make them smarter, it will make them healthier too.
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