Back to School: What About Indoor Air Quality?

If your son or daughter has allergies or asthma, there may be conditions inside the school building that could cause your child to experience health symptoms. What are some of these conditions, and what you can you as a parent do about it?

Carpeting. Many modern school buildings have wall-to-wall carpeting, which is often cleaned in the summer, when weather is most humid. If the carpeting remained damp for more than 48 hours, it may well contain mold growth, subsisting on captured dust. If your child’s classroom smells musty, the carpet may be the culprit. Ask the school to have the carpet dust tested for mold (or contact DACI lab at Johns Hopkins University and find out how to take a sample yourself).

If mold has grown in a carpet, the contamination cannot be removed completely by traditional steam cleaning. Treatment with steam vapor may help, but in the end, the carpet may have to be replaced. Meanwhile, the carpet can be covered with an adhesive-backed plastic like Pro-Tect.

Pets. Sometimes a teacher will have a pet rabbit or some other animal in the classroom, or even a fish tank. If your child is allergic to the animal, ask that the pet be moved to another room. And believe it or not, fish tank covers can be home to dust mites, thriving on the protein in the fish flakes spilled on the rim or stuck to the cover, and basking in all that warmth and moisture. Then mite allergens can become aerosolized when the cover is opened. If your child is allergic to dust mites, ask the teacher to keep the rim and cover of the tank clean.

Books. Times are lean, so I don’t blame teachers who collect children’s books at yard and library sales. Such books, however, can be covered with mold growth, especially if they’ve been stored below-grade (below ground level). If any books in the classroom smell musty or have visible mold spots (particularly on the spines), ask that they be removed from the room.

The front door. Children should not enter a school building directly onto permanently installed carpeting, because then moisture from their shoes can fuel mold growth. Ask the school to put a replaceable mat on top of the carpet in front of entrance and exit doors.

Below-grade spaces: Many modern school buildings have classrooms, the library, or even the gym partially or fully below-grade. If not adequately dehumidified in summer, such spaces often become contaminated with mold. Ask your child to try to keep track of any symptoms he or she experiences. If the symptoms worsen in below-grade spaces, your child may have to be excused from gym or library time until the spaces are cleaned.

Resources:

· The EPA’s “Tools for Schools” offers an overall indoor air quality plan for schools (800-438-4318; www.epa.gov/iaq).
· Check the EPA site for “Mold Remediation in Schools and Commercial Buildings (www.epa.gov/mold/mold_remediation.html).

Your child spends a lot of time in the school building. Don’t be complacent if you think there are conditions there that are threatening your child’s health.