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Indoor Air Quality in Schools
As Schools Reopen, Keep an Eye on Poor Indoor Air Quality: It’s Not Just About Coronavirus; Pollutants Are Also in the Mix
As we move toward the reopening of schools during a quieter phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, health concerns are top-of-mind. While the public is focusing on social distancing and masks, there should be one other item on the check list: indoor air quality. Because the air students, teachers, and staff breathe will play a critical role in their health going forward.
Besides coronavirus droplets, the vapors and particles given off by VOCs or volatile organic compounds, can negatively affect ones’ health, leading to compromised immunity, allergies, and other health problems. VOCs are emitted from various products used or found indoors such as arts and crafts products, disinfectants, pesticides, flooring, furniture, disinfectants and cleaners, and aerosol sprays.
VOCs can irritate eyes, throat and nasal cavities and cause breathing difficulties, and, if you or a loved one is exposed to these vapors over a long period of time, damage to the central nervous system and even cancer can occur. Symptoms can include headaches, fatigue, dizziness, and nausea.
While VOCs contribute to poor indoor quality, so does mold. Over the last several years, mold has proliferated in dozens of schools in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, even causing delayed openings for some last year. So, while school systems and daycare centers are working to comply with the new coronavirus regulations, they also need to pay more attention to their overall air quality. Happily, some are and are opting for upgraded filtration and air purifying systems. Others have a way to go.
We’ve created this guide to explain what you need to know about two major indoor air pollutants – mold and VOCs – and alert you to the symptoms and signs of both that may appear in schools and other buildings.
Your Guide to Preventing Indoor Air Pollution in Schools
VOCs in Schools
Unfortunately, VOCs are commonly found in school buildings and are given off by many man-made materials including: arts and crafts, carpeting, furniture, printers and copiers, adhesives, cleaning and disinfecting chemicals, aerosol sprays, and paint. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found concentrations of VOCs in indoor air to be as much as five times greater than those found in outdoor air. Indoor levels of VOCs may reach 1,000 times that of the outside air during certain activities. New buildings or newly renovated schools are especially prone to VOCs because all of the new materials are off-gassing simultaneously. Therefore, because children spend between 35-40 hours per week for 9-10 months of the year in schools, potentially they are being exposed to harmful chemicals.
Common symptoms of VOC exposure include:
Headaches
Fatigue and listlessness
Dizziness
Nausea
Nervousness
Difficulty concentrating
Mold in Schools – Where is It Found?
Classrooms, hallways, offices, and building corridors often harbor mold spores and dust mites, as do the building’s ventilation systems. If your child has allergies, you should find out how often the school cleans its HVAC vents, and if it uses high-efficiency air filters to remove mold, pollen, and other particles from the air. This may help to alleviate some of a child’s mold allergy symptoms. Libraries, art rooms, and gym locker rooms are typical areas for mold to grow in because they harbor moisture.
Mold and Children
All mold, toxic or not, is a health hazard. While toxic mold is the most harmful to a child’s health, all mildew and mold can cause health issues—especially for those who suffer from allergies. The younger a child is, the less developed his or her lungs and other organs are so the child is more vulnerable to contaminants, putting the child at special risk, whether at school or home.
Is It a Cold, Mold Allergy, COVID or Something Else?
How do you know if your child has a cold, the flu, seasonal allergies, COVID, or a mold allergy as many of the symptoms are the same? If a fever is present, this pretty much rules out allergies. But the fever might be caused by the flu, a virus, a cold or something else.
Signs and symptoms of a mold allergy:
Sneezing
Runny or stuffy nose
Itchy eyes, nose and throat
Headaches
Cough and postnasal drip
Watery eyes
Wheezing
Symptoms of toxic mold exposure:
Sensitivity to light
Joint pain and stiffness
Poor memory or difficulty finding words
Difficulty concentrating
A tingling or numbing sensation on skin
Fibromyalgia
Multiple chemical sensitivity, which causes varying symptoms due to low-level exposures to commonly used chemicals
If you child is fine in the morning, but returns from school with any of these symptoms but the symptoms quickly subside, there is a good chance that there’s an irritant at the school. If the pattern continues over time – child fine in the morning, returns home with symptoms that eventually subside, suggest to your school that they test their indoor air quality. However, if symptoms persist and do not subside, or if a fever develops, contact your physician.
Mold and Asthma
If your child is allergic to mold and also has asthma, his or her asthma symptoms may be triggered by exposure to mold spores. The symptoms can sometimes be severe. Your child may experience acute coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. To reduce asthma attacks caused by mold, ask your school to test for mold and air quality to see if the school’s indoor environment is the cause. Also, speak with your doctor about managing your child’s condition."
kevin 3
7 hours ago
"Causes Of Mold In Schools
Wet coats from damp playgrounds getting stuffed into lockers is certainly a contributing factor to increased moisture levels that can spawn mold growth. But schools can get battered by many other factors. Flat roofs often have drainage issues, making for leakage. The high populations of students, faculty and staff makes for a much higher probability of moisture gathering in what would be considered normal places. Around water fountains, on bathroom tiles, in locker rooms and showers, it’s likely that moisture levels can be highly elevated, making mold growth easy. Library carpets and even the pages of books can be great hosts to moisture and therefore mold, especially when one considers the difficulty of ventilating the shelves holding the World Book Encyclopedias that these days only get touched every so often for novelty reasons. Add to that the fact that many schools with growing student populations use additional, temporary structures for classrooms or administrative offices that are usually always more susceptible to water intrusion, and it’s not a stretch to suspect the likelihood of a mold presence in a school and a looming health hazard to everyone inside.
With budgetary pressures, even older schools attempt to tightly seal themselves to save on energy costs, further decreasing ventilation. For the same reasons, when schools are not in session air circulation is often decreased. This aspect becomes even more intriguing when one considers that schools are often closed securely for three months every summer when temperatures can rise, making any moisture accumulation blossom into a moldy concoction that will be waiting to irritate the next student with asthma or allergies who returns in the fall for a new school year.
So, it’s not difficult to see how a school can easily develop a mold issue, threatening the health of it’s students, faculty, and staff. And it’s also easy to understand why parents would be concerned, especially about a child with respiratory ailments and allergies. The question then becomes: what is a concerned parent to do? Other than over-reacting and beginning a home school regiment?"
https://www.mold-answers.com/mold-in-schools.html#:~:text=Causes%20Of%20Mold%20In,a%20home%20school%20regiment%3F
kevin 3
7 hours ago
"Causes Of Mold In Schools
Wet coats from damp playgrounds getting stuffed into lockers is certainly a contributing factor to increased moisture levels that can spawn mold growth. But schools can get battered by many other factors. Flat roofs often have drainage issues, making for leakage. The high populations of students, faculty and staff makes for a much higher probability of moisture gathering in what would be considered normal places. Around water fountains, on bathroom tiles, in locker rooms and showers, it’s likely that moisture levels can be highly elevated, making mold growth easy. Library carpets and even the pages of books can be great hosts to moisture and therefore mold, especially when one considers the difficulty of ventilating the shelves holding the World Book Encyclopedias that these days only get touched every so often for novelty reasons. Add to that the fact that many schools with growing student populations use additional, temporary structures for classrooms or administrative offices that are usually always more susceptible to water intrusion, and it’s not a stretch to suspect the likelihood of a mold presence in a school and a looming health hazard to everyone inside.
With budgetary pressures, even older schools attempt to tightly seal themselves to save on energy costs, further decreasing ventilation. For the same reasons, when schools are not in session air circulation is often decreased. This aspect becomes even more intriguing when one considers that schools are often closed securely for three months every summer when temperatures can rise, making any moisture accumulation blossom into a moldy concoction that will be waiting to irritate the next student with asthma or allergies who returns in the fall for a new school year.
So, it’s not difficult to see how a school can easily develop a mold issue, threatening the health of it’s students, faculty, and staff. And it’s also easy to understand why parents would be concerned, especially about a child with respiratory ailments and allergies. The question then becomes: what is a concerned parent to do? Other than over-reacting and beginning a home school regiment?"
kevin 3
7 hours ago
MOLD CONCERNS STATE-WIDE
Anderson notes that Trinity County does not have a particularly humid climate. She, along with many others, believes there are schools across the state with hidden mold issues just as severe as theirs.
In fact, a state report to the legislature in 2004 found the majority of California schools surveyed reported signs of moisture or mold in their classrooms.
The report linked mold spores to allergies and asthma, noting asthma was the "number one cause of chronic school absences, accounting for as many as 3 million missed school days a year."
Fifteen years later, there is still no required testing for mold in schools and no law that regulates air quality in schools. However, the Department of Education tells CBS13 that mold concerns are the most common complaint that they get.
The state reports the primary health hazards for mold in schools include asthma, allergies, respiratory infections, eye irritation, and rashes, like eczema.
However, more severe symptoms ranging from tremors to memory loss have been reported.
kevin 3
7 hours ago
"
CDPH adds, "The establishment of health-based permissible exposure limits for indoor levels of mold would imply that some levels of mold are safe, when in fact, they may not be."
Instead, both agencies say that any visible water damage, mold or musty odor is unhealthy and should be immediately addressed.
However, Green argues, "It's invisible unless you test for it!"
Trinity Alps Unified stresses that they didn't know they had water damage or mold until they tested the air and started ripping open walls to look for the source.
"It's an invisible toxin so you don't know it's there. "It grows in dark places so it's not visible on the wall," Green points out.
He notes that there is a set threshold for student safety when it comes to lead in the water and wildfire smoke outdoors, but there is nothing regulating the indoor air that students breathe for much of their eight-hour day.
Teachers do have some mold protections under the CAL/OSHA regulations for workers. In some countries, students are classified as workers, because they're working in school, so they also have protections. But students have no indoor air quality protections here.
"It's time for the state to look into the air quality of students in their buildings," Green said."
https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/hidden-toxic-mold-lurking-schools-no-one-testing/#:~:text=CDPH%20adds%2C%20%22The,buildings%2C%22%20Green%20said.
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