Statement of Veronika
Carella, Concerned parent and children's advocate
3124 Longfield Road,
Glenwood, Maryland 21738
September 27, 2002
BACKGROUND
Children have the right grow to their full
potential, both academically and physically.
Children have the right to a free and safe public education. For some
families, these goals are growing increasingly difficult and sometimes
impossible to obtain, because of the conditions that they face in their school
environment. I urge this committee to
address the concerns presented today and safeguard our children while they
attend school.
I respectfully present testimony as the
parent of two children seriously and perhaps permanently injured by exposure to
hazardous materials sustained while they attend public schools in
Maryland. My children unknowingly
became hyper-sensitive to pesticides and some hazardous chemicals due to
unintentional exposure at school to EPA-registered pesticides and other
hazardous materials when they were young (1995-1998). The resulting injuries have caused them to suffer serious
illnesses and miss a significant number of schools days. As a
family, we struggle with the physical,
emotional and economic effects of their conditions everyday since they were
exposed to these hidden school environment hazards.
Sadly, ours is not an isolated case. As a
children's advocate and active PTA member in the State of Maryland, I have
seen, heard, documented and testified to many horror stories from other
families who suffer needlessly from harmful products used in their children's
school environments.
NEED FOR LEGISLATION
There is no system to protect children. We
have personally found that school systems only do what they are legally
required to do. Ironically, because of
the lack of legislative protections and funds to adequately maintain our public
schools, my children and others continue to be exposed to known hazardous
conditions and toxic products in their public schools. The resulting injuries are unnecessary and
pose an unacceptable risk to their potential to live full and healthy lives as
adults.
Parents are required by law (Maryland) to
send their children to public school, yet there is a distinct lack of
legislative protection both on the state and federal level to safeguard children
while they are at school. Parents
appear to be powerless to protect their children from known hazards in the
school setting, thus schools environments continue to injure innocent and
unsuspecting children and staff.
Every day there is the potential for chemical
exposures. Public school students and
staff face hidden chemical assaults every day.
Children's small growing bodies cannot always process or tolerate the chemicals
that we all use in our every day world.
This is especially true for certain hazardous pesticides, cleaning
products and paints by many school systems.
Lower risk alternatives must be made available.
NEED FOR FUNDING
Solutions exist. However, without legislation, school will not implement
them. Without funding schools sometimes
cannot implement them. There is a need
for legislation and adequate funding to support such solutions such as
least-toxic Integrated Pest Management (IPM) where school maintenance and
repair reduce and often eliminate the need for chemical pest control methods.
Without funding, search cannot continue on identifying low risk alternatives to
the products we
know have the potential to harm our children.
I strongly encourage you to promptly fund and
to implement the Healthy and High Performance Schools Act and strengthen EPA's
school environment programs. Thank you
for your time and consideration.
Respectfully submitted by:
Veronika Carella
Concerned parent and children's advocate
3124 Longfield Road, Glenwood, Maryland 21738
phone: 410-489-5495 email: jlcarella@msn.com
September 27, 2002