To: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
Re: Hearing on Green
Schools, 10/1/02
From: Tolle Graham,
Coordinator Massachusetts Healthy Schools Network
The
Massachusetts Healthy Schools Network is a statewide coalition of parent,
education, labor, environment and public health activists working to address
poor environmental conditions in schools. Through education, technical
assistance and
advocacy we have been working on the following initiatives over
the last 5 years:
a.. Design, construction and maintenance for
healthy schools
b.. Environmental and Indoor Air Quality
information clearinghouse
c.. Promotion of "toxic-free"
schools
d.. Establishment of school-based
"Environmental Teams"
Here are some of the
environmental health and safety problems we have identified in our state:
a. Over 800 schools in Massachusetts are
located on or within ½ mile of a
hazardous site
b. School conditions ranking Massachusetts
49th in the nation on the overall
measurement of buildings
with at least one inadequate building condition.
c. Asthma rates among school children
reported higher in schools with indoor
air quality problems
by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bureau of Environmental Health
Assessment Survey (1999)
d. Teachers report second highest
work-related asthma cases in Massachusetts
e. Several hundred new schools currently
being built that duplicate some of
the same poor design
features that pose potential environmental siting hazards, IAQ problems and
maintenance costs that school districts can't afford.
Three
years ago the Mass Healthy Schools Network organized the first statewide
conference "Designing, Renovating, and Maintaining our School
Buildings" co-sponsored by, the Office of Civil Rights in the US
Department of Education, the Massachusetts Public Health Association, the
Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, the Massachusetts
Medical Society, the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency.
Twenty-two
additional health, environment, school related organizations and agencies
endorsed it. Conference participants, encouraged to attend as "teams"
from their school districts, included school administrators, teachers, parents,
health professionals, school committee members, school design committee
members, as well as facilities and maintenance staff.
In a follow-up
conference survey, close to 50% of respondents said they would like to see
regulations or laws that require Massachusetts Board of Education
School Building
Assistance Bureau to include specifications regarding environmental and indoor
air quality standards. In addition, they recommended changing the bid process
to require all bids to estimate the costs of maintaining the buildings and
materials for life cycle cost comparison. Few schools reported even having a
written maintenance plan. These responses have been echoed over and over again
in all of the activities we've engaged in since that conference.
The Mass Healthy
Schools Network has spearheaded some reforms within our state that have the
potential for greatly improving school environments and student and staff
health. They are:
a. Won passage of the Children's' and Family
Protection Act requiring integrated pest management plans in schools and school
grounds
b. Adoption of health and safety
requirements (SMACNA Guidelines) for schools seeking funds for construction
projects from the Massachusetts Department of Education.
c. 2nd State in the nation which is about to
adopt a school environmental
siting regulation
(public comment period till November 2002).
d. Developed model regulatory language for
healthy high performance schools which are being reviewed by the State Board of
Education and the Healthy Schools Council - representing state and federal
agencies that have some authority over schools
Although we feel
encouraged by these actions we feel strongly that Federal requirements and
funding are both critical to promote national standards for school
environmental health and safety. We therefore support the testimony of our
National advocates from the Childproofing Our Communities Campaign and the
New York Healthy
Schools Network and specifically ask you to support:
a. Requiring the EPA to develop school
environmental siting criteria and proper cleanup guidelines to reduce the risk
of exposure for children and school staff
b. Fund and implement the Healthy and High
performance Schools provision of the Leave No Child Behind Act
c. Funding to promote "green building"
practices in school construction and
renovation.
d. Reinstate health and safety grants for
emergency school renovations (2000)
e. Expand the EPA's schools programs which
provides "tools" for schools to address their school indoor air and
environmental hazards. If Committee members wish to get more detailed
information about our efforts to improve health and school environmental
conditions in Massachusetts, please feel free to contact: Tolle Graham, Healthy
Schools Program Coordinator, MassCOSH, 617-825-7233 x19 or
Tolle.Graham@masscosh.org
The Healthy Schools
Network includes:
Asthma and Allergy
Foundation of America, New England Chapter
Boston Urban Asthma
Coalition
Bowdoin Street
Health Center
MA Association for
the Chemically-Injured
MA Coalition for
Occupational Safety (MassCOSH)
MA Parent Teacher Association
MA Public Health
Association
MA Teachers
Association,
MA Public Interest
Research Group (MassPIRG)
Toxics Action Center
Western MassCOSH