Issue link: https://hi.iaq.net/i/153255
Healthy Schools 2015 79 Coalition for Healthier Schools Coalition Position Our nation is committed to raising academic performance for all children and to improving the environment of every neighborhood. Thus, we have a moral obligation to protect all children and to accommodate vulnerable children and personnel who already have impairments. To promote child and adult health, improve education, and create healthier communities, all schools should: • adopt high performance design and siting standards, • promote and sustain quality indoor air, • use safer cleaning and maintenance products, and non-toxic products for instruction, • use safer/least-toxic integrated pest control and weed control, • provide quality lighting, including more natural light, • provide good acoustics and noise control, • select durable, easy-to-clean flooring, • offer wholesome food and exercise opportunities, • provide safe spaces for outdoor activities, • build or retrofit facilities for energy and other resource efficiencies, and • remediate lead, CCA, PCBs, mold infestations, and clean out old chemicals. Federal Policy • Adequate funding for EPA's Green and Healthy Schools Initiative. • Restoring full staffing and resources for U.S. EPA IAQ Tools for Schools program at greater than Fiscal Year 2010 levels, focusing on restoring national and regional grants and staffing • Sufficient funding and staffing for federal agencies to develop a coordinated federal strategy to address healthy school environments for all children (CDC, EPA, Education, Energy, Labor, Homeland Security). • Re-authorize and expand the Healthy High Performance Schools (Subtitle E) of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that directs EPA to issue voluntary guidelines and partnership grants to states to advance school environmental health programs. • Fund school construction/renovation and urgent repairs, such as the Fix America's Schools Today (FAST) Act to ensure that renovated facilities are healthy places for children. State and Local Policy • Promote, adopt, fund, and implement healthy, high performance school facility design. Factors include: facility oversight and safe siting; adequate, safe space for outdoor activities; low-emission construction materials; pollutant source controls; ventilation; durable and easy-to-clean surfaces and floors; moisture and mold controls; temperature and humidity controls; acoustics and noise controls; ergonomics; safety and security; daylighting (maximizing natural light); and energy conservation. • Promote, adopt, and fund standards and programs to promote use of environmentally preferable materials for school construction, instruction, maintenance, and cleaning, such as integrated pest management (IPM) and third party certified green cleaning products. • Support state agency programs to reduce use or storage of toxic chemicals, such as mercury, pesticides and solvents. • Remediate hazards such as PCBs, asbestos, and lead in drinking water. • Ensure that parents and employees have an active "right to know" about hazards. • Ensure that all facilities are fully accessible to students and employees with asthma and environmental, learning, and physical disabilities and do no further harm their For more information, including supporting organizations, see www.HealthySchools.org/coalition.html