Across the nation, school bells are ringing in a new year of lessons, labs, lunches, and learning. However, students aren't the only ones who will need to do some homework this year. If you have a child attending school, you should consider studying up on the air quality they’re exposed to while in and on their way to class. After all, a clean bill of health is one of the first school supplies students need in order to perform well!

With a full day of classes plus before- or after-school childcare, tutoring, clubs, and activities, students can spend the majority of their weekdays on school grounds, and these areas can sometimes house hidden threats to your child's wellbeing.

Indoor Air Quality and Your Health

While people have begun to understand the health hazards of poor outdoor air quality thanks to increasingly aggressive wildfire seasons, many remain unaware of the potential negative health impacts of poor indoor air quality. Indoor air quality refers to the safety of the air within and around buildings and structures, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants. 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that indoor levels of pollutants can be two to five times higher than levels found outdoors, with extreme cases yielding levels of pollutants more than 100 times higher than outdoor levels.

With most Americans spending 90% of their time indoors, indoor air pollution is consistently ranked by the EPA as among the top five environmental risks to public health, with potential issues stemming from the presence of dust, mold, radon, secondhand smoke, pests, air intake from the outside, carbon monoxide, lead, and even byproducts of the building materials used in the structure.

Older School Buildings Can Affect Air Quality

Results from a 2014 survey from the National Center for Education Statistics estimated that the average date of construction for the main US schools was 1959, and about half of these 60+ year old structures have been reported to have problems with indoor air quality.

Indoor air pollution can trigger allergic reactions, fatigue, headaches, wheezing, respiratory issues, and other issues in exposed children. For those 1 in 15 school-aged children with asthma, poor indoor and outdoor air quality can trigger asthma symptoms, contributing to asthma's role as the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic illness.

Poor indoor air quality at schools can also affect teachers, school administrators, and other adults working in school buildings—some may even develop adult-onset asthma. Asthma-prone adults and children are both at risk of asthma symptoms or flare-ups due to environmental exposure to allergens such as dust mites, pests, pet dander, mold, and secondhand smoke. Asthma symptoms in adults are often more persistent than they are in children.

Not only can indoor air pollution lead to asthma and other health problems, it can also lead to lower academic performance in school and higher absenteeism due to exacerbated asthma symptoms.

Addressing poor indoor air quality at school

The first step in addressing an issue like poor indoor air quality at school is to raise awareness. National Healthy Schools Day, started in 2002, celebrates and promotes healthy and green indoor school environments for all children and staff. The Healthy Schools Network, which coordinates National Healthy Schools Day, partners with many agencies and organizations to spread the word on how schools can improve their indoor environments with guidance from the EPA’s IAQ Tools for School.

During National Healthy Schools Day, schools, communities, non-governmental organizations, and other groups can plan activities to highlight and address air quality issues. These activities may include strengthening or creating an indoor air quality program at school, replacing cleaning products with safer substitutes, or hosting an Indoor Air Quality or Green Cleaning Workshop, among other initiatives.

In addition, schools can also get involved in the Air Quality Flag Program. This program uses brightly colored flags based on the EPA’s Air Quality Index in order to notify communities about outdoor air quality conditions. Although the Air Quality Flag Program refers to outdoor air quality, the air outside can affect the air indoors, as well as overall community health.

Based on the air quality outdoors, teachers and community members can tell which days, or what time of day, is the best to take a break from the indoors and engage in outdoor activity. In addition, on days when outdoor air quality is unhealthy, teachers and community members can plan to keep students and children indoors, noting that some asthma and allergy triggers may be heightened indoors as well.

How You Can Help

You can help improve the air quality in and around your child's school by reducing your overall carbon footprint. Instead of driving only your child to school, ask other parents in your neighborhood if they want to start a carpool, reducing the number of individual vehicle trips to and from the school building. Live close to school? Try walking or biking there with your child, or if they're old enough and the path is safe, encourage them to walk or bike themselves.