The Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Program has informative materials for school facility personnel to assess environmental conditions in school buildings. Below is a brief description of the program along with other links to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Indoor Environments website.
The number and types of personal care products, pesticides, and household cleaners contributes to poor indoor air quality in many buildings. So does a decrease in the amount of fresh outdoor air used to dilute contaminants. Other factors such as mold, mildew, dust, animal dander, radon, secondhand smoke, asbestos and formaldehyde can affect indoor air quality and trigger various allergies and asthma. Asthma alone accounts for 14 million missed school days each year. The rate of asthma in young children has risen by 160 percent in the last 15 years, and today one out of every 13 school-age children has asthma.
EPA’S Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Tools for Schools Program is designed to give schools the information and skills they need to manage air quality in a low-cost, practical manner. The Program is based on proven, practical methods for understanding, preventing and resolving indoor air quality problems. The IAQ Tools for Schools Kit, which includes an IAQ coordinator guide, checklists and a road map among other things, is designed to be implemented by school staff that performs self assessments and repairs on their own.
Region 4 has about 1,300 individual schools participating in the IAQ Tools for Schools Program. The Indoor Environments Team at EPA provides IAQ workshops to school principals, nurses, and maintenance staff and assists school staff in conducting walkthroughs of their facilities to identify potential IAQ problems. Our goal is to assist as many schools as possible to maintain a safe, healthy, and productive learning environment. If you would like more information on how to get started, please contact Lashon Blakely, Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Coordinator at 404-562-9136 or by email at blakely.lashon@epa.gov.
Other resources:
- Mold in Schools Fact Sheet
- Mold in Schools and Commercial Buildings
- Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Program: Benefits of Improving Air Quality in the Indoor Environment
- Impact of Indoor Air Quality on Student Health and Academic Performance