Biocide Policy | Building Materials and Furnishings | Building Maintenance and Renovation | Carpets | Cleaning and Maintenance Products and Procedures | Communication | Lighting | Portables/Portapac Classrooms | Proximity to Power Line Corridors | Smoking and Scented Products | Transportation | Ventilation Systems and Openable Windows | Specific Accommodations for Sensitive Students

Adopt Board policies and procedures in consultation with representatives of persons with environmental sensitivities, to accommodate the needs of students with environmental sensitivities within the home school whenever possible and communicate these policies and procedures throughout your Board and to all of your schools.

Develop a communication link with an agency such as the Allergy and Environmental Health Association – preferably by granting a seat on your Special Education Advisory Committee and other relevant committees such as an indoor air quality committee or environment committee. It is advisable that the Health and Safety Officer sit on the Special Education Advisory Committee.

Improve the indoor environment in schools by addressing the following areas of concern:

General (for all students)

1.   Communication

• Encourage open two-way communications between parents and staff.

• Review the student's health needs.

• Arrange a team conference to include all of the student's teachers and the student's parents to ensure that everyone is aware of the student's needs.

• Notify substitute teachers of the needs of sensitive students. The Student Record (kept in school office) and teacher's daybook should include the needs of students. The person responsible for substitute teachers should be given the appropriate information to ensure that substitute teachers are aware of the special needs with respect to personal care products and clothing.

• Involve all staff, students and the public health nurse in the environmental learning process through publications, inservice workshops, attendance at conferences, etc.

2.   Smoking and scented products

• Establish a no-smoking policy on school property, as well as on buses, on and off duty.

• Establish a no-scent policy on school property, as well as on buses, on and off duty:

• A "no scent" policy includes perfume, cologne, after-shave and scented personal care products, including deodorant, shampoos, hair sprays and gels, soaps, laundry detergents, fabric softeners, etc.

No Scents makes Good Sense AVOID: perfume cologne after-shave scented personal care products (most are scented) scented soaps (most are ...) scented laundry detergents (most are ...) ALL fabric softeners

3.   Biocide policy
      (e.g., bactericides, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides)

• Eliminate the use of synthetic bactericides, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides. Use alternative pest management strategies11 and safer products such as borax, benzalkonium chloride and hydrogen peroxide.

• Prepare a policy and procedures manual listing safe products and techniques and ensure that the procedures are enforced. The Toronto Board of Education and the Halton Board of Education have done a considerable amount of work in this area.

Ventilation Systems Upgrade and maintain ventilation systems. Provide direct source exhaust for all pollutant sources.

4.    Ventilation systems and openable windows

• Upgrade heating and ventilation systems to satisfy either the most stringent air quality standards or those necessary to meet the needs of sensitive students, whichever are higher. Clean and maintain these systems regularly.

• Improve fresh air intake and air filtration systems. Locate air intakes upwind and away from building exhaust vents, and away from tarred roofs and bus-loading zones. Choose appropriate air filtration materials and ventilation systems; check for the tolerability of these materials with each affected student or staff member with environmental sensitivities.

• Provide direct exhaust to the outside from all contaminant sources, such as photocopy and laminating rooms, chemistry and biology laboratories, artrooms, computers, printers and fax machines, storage rooms, change rooms, cloak rooms, kitchens, washrooms, etc.

• Locate industrial art shops, auto shops, science laboratories and artrooms in efficiently vapour-sealed, negative-pressure classrooms, with separate ventilation systems or, preferably, locate them in separate buildings.

• Install automatic-closure doors on all rooms containing the contaminant sources listed above.

• Provide openable windows in all classrooms.

Openable Windows in ALL Classrooms Reassign windowless classrooms for non-student uses. Maximize the use of windows for natural light and fresh air in new and retrofit projects. All students and staff benefit significantly from fresh air and natural light.

5.   Proximity to power line corridors

• Locate schools away from power line corridors. Schools and their school yards and sports fields should not be located under or near transformers, power line corridors or overhead power lines.12

6.   Lighting

• Classrooms without windows should be retrofitted with either openable windows or skylights and heat recovery ventilators; if retrofits are not possible, re-assign the classrooms for non-student uses.

• Maximize the use of windows in classrooms (return to the standard of a full wall of windows from at least the three-foot level to ceiling level).

• Ensure that each classroom has a minimum of four openable windows (two high, two low).

• Use near or full spectrum lighting and install low-harmonic electronic ballasts.

• Install multiple light dimable controls in classrooms to permit the maximum use of natural light and the minimum use of artificial lighting.

• Install vertical blinds, preferably aluminum.

7.   Building materials and furnishings

• Avoid "building in" problems when renovating or constructing new schools. Increasingly, better tolerated building materials are becoming available on the market. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is continually updating information on air quality, safer building materials and construction/ renovation practices.13

• Use maintenance and renovation practices which minimize the use of volatile organic compounds (such as solvents).
  
  Use building materials and furnishings that either do not off-gas or do so minimally and have been aired out off-site. For example, when building or renovating schools or when buying new furniture, avoid materials such as composite board products that off-gas at high levels for many years.
  
  If materials or furnishings continue to off-gas after installation, apply a tolerated sealant. Use flooring for which off-gassing is more manageable, such as terrazzo, ceramic, hardwood and some hard vinyl tiles and do not apply sealants, waxes, etc. Select adhesives and finishes for their tolerability and to minimize volatile organic compounds. Avoid carpeting and sheet vinyl due to their usual and significant off-gassing.

• Establish a mandatory off-gassing period for new construction and renovation projects. Use extra ventilation and increased temperatures while buildings are empty to accelerate off-gassing; this is known as a "bake out" protocol.

Floor Coverings Establish a no-carpeting policy. Use smooth, non-porous and preferably seamless flooring throughout all schools for replacement and new construction projects.

8.   Carpets

• Establish a "no carpet" policy for new construction and renovation projects.
  
  If carpets are absolutely necessary, use low-mass or natural options for limited applications such as for mobility disabilities. Carpets are a major source of indoor air pollution in our schools. Most carpets off-gas many toxic chemicals. Carpets act as a sink for contaminants in an indoor environment meaning that they continually adsorb and desorb contaminants. Carpets become a breeding ground for molds, dust mites and bacteria, and they are a trap for dusts. Use smooth, non-porous preferably seamless flooring as a substitute for carpeting. In kindergarten classrooms, use washable cotton throw rugs or towels as an alternative to wall-to-wall carpeting.
  
  A recent comparative study14 indicates that substantial savings can be achieved, when installation and maintenance costs are considered, by using smooth flooring rather than carpeting. In their study, Norbäck and Torgén15 indicated that:

  "The wall-to-wall carpet group reported an overfrequency of eye and airway symptoms, rashes in the face, headache, abnormal tiredness and a sensation of being electrostatically charged in comparison with personnel in schools with hard floor covering."

A Few of the Chemicals Found in Carpets 4-PC Toluene Formaldehyde Other aldehydes

Originally, schools installed carpets because of the belief that they contributed to the learning environment. However, current research indicates that that they contribute to ill health and impaired learning ability. In order to help children with environmental sensitivities, it is necessary to reduce the overall load of contaminants to which they are exposed.

ZIGGY © ZIGGY AND FRIENDS, INC.
Distributed by UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE.
Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

The cheapest single method of reducing this load is to remove carpeting. A policy of no new carpeting in schools will benefit all children and teachers, both now and in the future.

9.   Building maintenance and renovation

• Use readily available zero-VOC water-borne paints.

• Use zero-VOC epoxy paints for special applications.

• Air out products before delivery to designated school. Specify open packaging if cross contamination is unlikely.

• Schedule painting, heavy maintenance and renovation projects during July, with appropriate ventilation and exhaust. This will maximize off-gassing. Schools that also house day-care centres or run summer school classes will require alternative strategies to protect the children, such as moving them to alternate locations.

• Use exhaust fans, heating and other procedures to facilitate off-gassing of new materials before the children recommence school.

Cleaning and Maintenance Products Use unscented, tolerable, non-toxic cleaning and maintenance products, such as baking soda and diluted vinegar

10.  Cleaning and maintenance products and procedures

• Use non-odorous, unscented, zero-VOC, non-toxic cleaning and maintenance products.

• Eliminate any cleaning product whose Material Safety Data Sheet requires the use of protective equipment including safety goggles and rubber gloves, extra ventilation or special product dumping precautions.

• Eliminate any product to which a student or staff member reacts.

• Eliminate the use of all waxes. Use sealants only where necessary to contain volatile organic compounds.

• Dust and vacuum daily [protocol using a HEPA (high efficiency particulate arrestor) vacuum and a static or damp mop].

• Air classrooms thoroughly after cleaning.

No-waxing policy

11.   Portables/portapac classrooms

• Eliminate portables and portapac classrooms or develop appropriate standards to ensure that they are built in such a way that they do not off-gas.

• If portables and portapac classrooms are used, provide adequate ventilation underneath these structures to reduce mold contamination.

• Assign students with environmental sensitivities to non-portable/non-portapac classrooms.
  
  Contact Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) regarding information gained from the development of CMHC's modular Research House for the Environmentally Hypersensitive16. The information gained from the development of this housing unit could be adapted to design more tolerable portable classrooms with appropriate ventilation systems.

12.   Transportation

• Provide suitable transportation in gas-powered vehicles (not diesel, propane or natural gas) that are at least two years old.

• Ensure that bus drivers are non-smokers and use unscented personal care products.

• Ensure that vehicles are cleaned with non-odorous, unscented, zero-VOC, non-toxic cleaning products.

• Establish a board policy to ensure that buses do not run or idle while awaiting students.

Action Plan for Sensitive Students Improve indoor air quality Additional accommodations for sensitive students include: suitable classroom location carpet-free classrooms openable windows tolerable furniture and textbooks low EMF equipment or computer shields tolerable transportation Educate all staff, supply teachers and students

Specific Accommodations for Sensitive Students

• Recognize that sensitivities vary significantly. What one sensitive individual tolerates another may not. Also recognize that the same individual's tolerances will vary from one day to the next depending on exposure profile/history.

• Check with the student and the student's parents before bringing new substances into the school.

• Assign sensitive students to a classroom within the main school building, not in portable or portapac classrooms.

• Assign sensitive students to carpet-free classrooms.

• Provide openable windows for sufficient natural light and fresh air.

• Provide furniture that is at least two years old. Combination desk-chair units reduce noise irritation. Use tolerated sealants when off-gassing persists from furniture that is more than two years old.

• Provide suitable textbooks: neither brand new because of off-gassing from ink, paper or glue nor too old because of molds, dusts and mites.

• Use tolerated non-volatile cleaning and maintenance products.

• Dust and vacuum daily (protocol using a HEPA vacuum and static or damp mop).

• Air classrooms after cleaning.

• Provide low EMF computers.

• Provide sufficient fresh air to classrooms and laboratories and efficient external exhaust venting hoods for laboratories, family studies classrooms, computer labs, etc.

• Provide transportation in a tolerated vehicle with a non-smoking driver.

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11.  United States Environmental Protection Agency, Pest Control in the School Environment: Adopting Integrated Pest Management (Washington, DC: August 1993), EPA 735-F-93-012.

12.  Hathaway, Warren E., Ph.D., "Radiation Effects: Implications for educational facility planning", The Canadian School Executive, December 1991, pp. 3–9.

13.  Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Building Materials for the Environmentally Hypersensitive (Ottawa: forthcoming). See also United States Environmental Protection Agency et al., Building Air Quality: A Guide for Building Owners and Facility Managers (Washington, DC: Superintendent of Documents, December 1991).

15.  Dan Norbäck and Margareta Torgén, "A Longitudinal Study of Symptoms Associated with Wall-to-Wall Carpets and Electrostatical Charge in Swedish School Buildings", Indoor Air Quality '87: Proceedings of the ASHRAE Conference, Arlington, Virginia, May 18–20, 1987 (Vol. 2), pp. 572–576.

16.  Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Research House for the Environmentally Hypersensitive: Description and Technical Details (Ottawa: November 1994).