INTRODUCTION
Every child has a right to an environmentally safe and healthy learning environment which is clean and in good repair; officials should be held accountable for the conditions of schools; and, every child, parent, and school employee has a "right to know" about environmental health issues and hazards in their school environment.1 These rights are part of the Guiding Principles of School Environmental Quality adopted by the New York State Board of Regents in 1994; they are basic, and one might assume it to be the norm for our schools. Unfortunately, according to the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), the US Government Accounting Office (US GAO), in New York, and across the nation, this is not the case. AASA data estimates that three-fourths of our country's school buildings have outlived their predicted useful life. This means that nearly 5 million children are subjected to substandard schools every day.2 In referring to these 'sick' schools, the National PTA stated that, "the AASA Schoolhouse in the Red project reported that one building in every eight, or 13,200 schools across the nation, is inadequate for learning. . . These problems cost us the health and productivity of our most valuable natural resources – our children and the educators committed to their intellectual growth"
According to the American Public Health Association and the US EPA, environmental toxins pose a greater threat to children than to adults.
Because children's systems are still developing – including rapid changes in growth and development, immature body organs and tissues, and weaker immune systems in infancy – they are more susceptible to environmental threats; because children eat proportionately more food, drink more fluids, and breathe more air per pound of body weight, and because they play outside more, they are exposed to more environmental threats; because children are least able to protect themselves their behavior – such as crawling on the ground or the floor – exposes them to different environmental threats.3
In short, children's physiology, the vulnerability of their still developing bodies, as well as their behavior, puts them at greater risk from exposures to environmental hazards. In addition, children are less aware of what constitutes a hazard, and therefore less able to protect themselves.
Moreover, occupational safety and health standards used for adults in their workplaces were not designed for nor do they apply to children in schools or other learning environments. Children are compelled to attend schools and may not leave a classroom or building. For example, children cannot always take sick days when construction fumes or debris are impairing their health and learning. With pressure on to achieve new learning standards, students need quality class time and seat time, not health-impaired time. For all these reasons, children require more protection.
Furthermore, if children are often exposed to environmental toxins – as the case may be if schools are not safe or are poorly maintained – they may have an increased tendency to develop diseases with longer latency periods, such as cancer or Parkinson's disease, later on in life because of their early exposures.6 What toxins children are exposed to early on in their lives may affect them throughout their entire lifespans. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we make our children's environments as safe as possible, reducing or eliminating risks in order to ensure their health not only now, but also well into the future.
Specific types of childhood cancers, especially brain cancer and leukemia are on the rise. These illnesses can be linked to and triggered by environmental factors. In discussing these trends, the non-profit organization Physicians for Social Responsibility stated that:
Some substances in a child's environment can potentially cause cancer, chronic respiratory problems, and learning disabilities, among other problems. Although the death rate for childhood cancers has declined in recent years, the incidence of new cases of cancer has been increasing, especially for acute lymphocytic leukemia and brain cancer, two of the most common forms of cancer that occur during childhood. Widespread exposure to pesticides and other chemicals in the environment may contribute to the rising rate of these cancers.7
Philip Landrigan, MD, a pediatrician and chair of the Mount Sinai Medical Center's Department of Community Medicine, and Director of the Pew Center for Children's Health and the Environment, stated:
Patterns of illness in American children have changed dramatically in this century. The ancient infectious diseases have largely been controlled. The major diseases confronting children now are chronic and disabling conditions termed the 'new pediatric morbidity' - asthma mortality has doubled; leukemia and brain cancer have increased in incidence; neurodevelopmental dysfunction is widespread; hypospadias incidence has doubled. Chemical toxicants in the environment as well as poverty, racism, and inequitable access to medical care are factors known and suspected to contribute to causation of these pediatric diseases. 8
Similarly, asthma has become more common and more deadly, particularly among minority and inner city children. Data from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that asthma deaths rose by 118% between 1980 and 1993, a frightening trend.9 It is well established that asthma attacks are triggered by allergens, which are composed of common substances such as mold, pollen, dust mites, and particularly antigens found in cockroach feces, saliva, eggs, and cuticles. Because these allergens are so commonplace in our everyday environment, and are often invisible to the naked eye, it is all the more important that we ensure that school cleanliness is held to the strictest of standards. Pesticides are frequently used in school settings, yet recent studies point out that the mechanism by which asthma occurs is not inconsistent with the action of many pesticides. Worse, pesticides can be a threat to all building occupants.
According to the US EPA, "The term 'sick building syndrome' (SBS) is used to describe situations in which building occupants experience acute health and comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified. The term 'building related illness' (BRI) is used when symptoms of diagnosable illnesses are identified and can be attributed directly to airborne building contaminants."10 The buildings are not actually 'sick,' but they can cause their occupants to become sick. A warning sign that a building is suffering from SBS is that its occupants become ill an hour or two after entering the building but feel better an hour or two after leaving. Typical health problems indicating SBS are lethargy, flu-like symptoms, headaches, and respiratory problems. Comments from our survey indicated the potential that some respondents might be suffering from BRI as a result of exposures to airborne building contaminants in their schools.
In addition, the conditions capable of causing a building to have SBS are also capable of causing a host of other problems in the building's occupants. The National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) warns of health problems from air pollutants such as asbestos, ozone, pesticides, radon, formaldehyde, tobacco smoke, and lead. Furthermore, these problems can be intensified by factors such as light, noise, and temperature.11 These hazards are present in many schools, directly or indirectly, through lack of maintenance resulting in peeling paint, cracked ceilings, old playground equipment, and the presence of roaches and rodents. Other hazards can include hazardous cleaning chemicals, poor ventilation, and certain pesticides.
Children today face many well-documented and complex problems –violence, poverty, drugs, and abuse to name a few. Too little attention is focused on children's exposures to avoidable environmental health hazards in schools. Yet, ironically, the latter can often be addressed in a straightforward manner.
Perhaps the Children's Environmental Health Network stated it best: "Many of the problems our children face we will never be able to fix completely. However, reducing our children's exposures to chemicals that can cause disease is one of the battles we can fight and win."12
For these reasons it is now an issue of first importance for New York City's school children to determine the environmental health and safety of New York City's schools. A first step towards making these determinations is the data analysis of the environmental health and safety conditions reported by school users found in this report.
The organizations working together on this report are the Healthy Schools Network and Advocates for Children of New York, Inc. Founded in 1994, the Healthy Schools Network, Inc. (HSN), is a state-wide organization of parent, environment, education, and public health groups dedicated to assuring every child and school employee an environmentally healthy school, through information, education, and coalition-building. Advocates for Children of New York, Inc. (AFC) has worked in partnership with New York City's most impoverished and vulnerable families to secure quality and equal public education services for over 25 years. AFC works on behalf of children from infancy to age 21 who are at greatest risk for school-based discrimination and/or academic failure. These include children with disabilities, ethnic minorities, immigrants, homeless children, foster care children, limited English proficient children and those living in poverty. AFC's Executive Director has served as the coordinator of the New York City Healthy Schools Network Working Group ("the Working Group") during the last three years.
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