School Indoor Air Quality in the Spotlight this Weekend with CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta

One of the most basic promises of a school building is that it will provide a safe environment where students and teachers can focus on learning. Very simply, the school environment should not put students’ health at risk. But what happens when schools fall into disrepair and no longer fulfill that promise?

This weekend, CNN will bring much-needed attention to the issue of indoor air quality in schools, exploring the ways this widespread and often overlooked problem affects kids’ health and their long-term academic success. In this segment, CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta will visit schools across the country to examine the impact of poor indoor air quality.

Check out this behind-the-scenes preview:

For the past several years, HSC has partnered with Critical Exposure and the 21st Century School Fund to present Through Your Lens, a photo contest and exhibit in which students and teachers share photos of their school buildings. One of the most striking impressions from the photos is that so many schools need so many basic repairs to address issues -- from leaky roofs to moldy walls -- that affect the quality of the air students and staff breathe every day.

While this is a massive issue, it’s one that is often overlooked -- especially at budget time. The national backlog for this type of school repair is estimated to be in the range of $200 billion, a number that’s expected to grow as states and school districts face shrinking budgets and postpone facility repairs rather than cut classroom budgets.

What can you do? We encourage you to join us in leveraging this opportunity to make a difference in the air children breathe in our nation’s schools:

• Watch CNN’s segment this weekend and join the conversation online. It will air this Saturday, January 14 at 8 p.m., 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. EST, and again this Sunday, January 15 at  8 p.m., 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. EST.  Then raise your voice to tell CNN and the online community how important this issue is. You can share your reactions via Twitter (to @cnnpresents or @sanjayguptacnn) or online at www.CNN.com. 

• Tell Congress to fix schools in need of repair as part of its jobs-creation effort. The Fix America’s Schools Today (FAST) Bill would provide funding for much-needed school repairs while creating jobs in sectors especially hard-hit by the economy. Learn more and send a letter to your Senators and Representative at www.fixamericasschoolstoday.org.

• Check out student and teacher photos in Through Your Lens. This striking collection of images shows the reality of schools in need of repair; it also shows the potential of safe, healthy schools that support learning, including many older buildings that have simply been well-maintained over the years. See the photos at www.throughyourlens.org.

Safe, healthy indoor air is a simple and fundamental part of a good learning environment. We’re looking forward to the segment this weekend and applaud CNN and advocates across the nation who are working to bring attention to this critical issue.

Comments

[Nancy Swan]

I was seriously and permanently injured while teaching at Long Beach Mississippi middle school. More than two dozen children also suffered serious injuries. Despite the reports of injury, the contractor refused to stop spraying toxic chemicals.

The EPA reports that one half of U.S. schools have air that is unsafe for children to breathe. Participate in this program and learn where the problems are and what can be done to improve our schools and protect the health of our children.

Many schools use cleaners that are known to cause cancer. Children are sickened by gasses and particles from pesticides to toxic renovation and construction chemicals. Many children are left learning disabled and some suffer cancer caused by exposure to pesticides and toxic products and fumes at schools.

To the hundreds of parents who write me their stories, here is your chance to tell CNN that you want them to continue to focus on hazardous environmental and chemicals in our schools.

Inform your school officials about this program. Unfortunately, decisions which leave children and teachers at risk are made by school officials who know little to nothing about toxic chemicals nor children's susceptibility to hazardous products. Our officials and teachers need training to protect our kids. Children's Environmental Protection Alliance is working to produce the Children's EPA workshop for politicians to school janitors.

Go to http://www.childrensepa.org to learn more about toxic schools. To learn about what happened to me, go to http://www.toxicjustice.com

To see listing of toxic school news articles go to http://www.nancyswan.com/interests/healthy-schools-healthy-children/news

[Nancy Swan]

Toxic Justice: A Teacher's True Story of Her Toxic Injury And Quest For Justice, by Nancy Swan
Chapter 1

October 9, 1985, Wednesday

A yellow cloud billowed down off the flat top roof above my classroom at Long Beach Junior High School. Swirling briefly between the trucks and the outside wall, the stinging, sweet-tasting fumes and particles blew into the room through twelve open windows.

"Shut the windows," I yelled to the students, but my voice was drowned out by the loud rumbling and hissing from the machinery and trucks parked outside.

Two seventh-grade girls at the other end of the room coughed and fanned their notebooks in a vain attempt to breathe fresh air. Several children cupped their hands over their noses and backed away from the windows. I ran to the end of the classroom and shoved a bottom window shut. Standing on a chair, I leaned out to close the upper window, but it had swung too far out for me to reach the handle.

I looked down from the window into the bed of a battered white pickup truck where a motor or air compressor continued to roar. I could almost reach out the window and touch the bundle of hoses that hung down from the roof. The hoses snaked along the grass toward the large silver tanker parked in the median between the buildings.

To read more about my story, Toxic Justice go to and the hundreds of toxic school news stories posted each year, go to http://www.nancyswan.com/toxic-justice-a-true-story

and to read about Children's Environmental Protection Alliance go to http://www.childrensepa.org

[Mark Bishop]

Thank you Nancy for your information and excellent suggestions. I encourage people to take a look at Nancy’s website and learn about her experiences. And Nancy, I look forward to reading Toxic Justice when it is published. Good luck!