PILLAR 1: SPECIFIC STEPS FORWARD

Overall, some key steps in applying a Precautionary Approach to help make our schools toxics free might be the following:36

1. Parents, Students and School Staff Should:

• Demand from school administrators and district personnel the right to know about environmental health issues such as pesticides, commercial cleaning products, lead, mold, indoor air quality (especially in portable classrooms), and industrial emissions at and around school.
• Advocate that schools use alternatives to pesticides, herbicides and toxic cleaning materials whenever possible.
• Conduct a school health survey to identify possible problems in your schools.
• Pressure school districts, along with local, state and federal governments, to do the following:

2. School Districts and Local Governments Should:

• Provide parents, students and school staff with the right to know (see above).
• Ensure that schools are not sited near or on environmental health hazards.
• Adopt Integrated Pest Management programs and other policies to minimize or eliminate the use of hazardous pesticides and herbicides.
• Adopt policies that mandate using the least toxic cleaning materials.
• Ensure that new schools are built or refurbished using the least toxic materials, and with designs that minimize mold and maximize good ventilation (see Pillar 2)
• Serve sustainably grown, organic, pesticide–free food (see Pillar 3)
• Act on early warnings: where parents or staff have a credible fear about a particular issue, school districts and elected officials should take them seriously and attempt to address their concerns.
• Avoid the use of portable classrooms (which can off–gas formaldehyde) where possible, and ensure their ventilation when they are used.

3. State Education Departments and Governments Should:

• Adopt state–wide Integrated Pest Management legislation and policies such as the proposed California Assembly Bill AB 1006, which would eliminate the most highly toxic pesticides from schools.
• Adopt and fund standards that mandate the elimination of toxic cleaning and maintenance materials in state schools and/or the adoption of least–toxic alternatives.
• Adopt and fund standards that mandate new schools be built or refurbished using the least toxic materials as part of a set of healthy, high–performance schools standards.(pillar 2)
• Restrict the use of portable classrooms where possible.

4. The Federal Government:

• Congress should pass the School Environmental Protection Act (HR 121), which would require the implementation of Integrated Pest Management programs nation–wide.
• Congress should increase funding for EPA’s Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools program, which provides technical assistance to local efforts to address problems.
• The US Department of Education should submit to Congress the long overdue and required report on the impact of unhealthy school buildings on child health and learning (Section 5414 of the No Child Left Behind Act, 2001).