Breathing lessons

Up to 70 percent of Massachusetts elementary schools have air so dirty it can make kids sick

by Sarah McNaught

Kids at the Elsie A. Hastings Elementary School in Westborough got a head start on their summer vacations this year, but the time off wasn't necessarily filled with fun: the school closed several weeks early because so many faculty, staff, and students had complained of upper respiratory infections. School officials and environmentalists are not yet sure what caused the rash of health problems. Some say a nearby swamp may be contaminating the underground heating and cooling system at the school, which was built in 1970.

The Hastings isn't the only Massachusetts school that seems to be making kids and adults sick. Last fall, after numerous complaints of headaches, chronic coughing, and sleepiness in school, students from the Greater Egleston Community High School, the Timilty Middle School, and the Nathan Hale Elementary School worked with the Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project to examine the quality of the air in their schools. What they found was disturbing. Using equipment from the Environmental Protection Agency, students found high levels of carbon dioxide and low levels of fresh air flow in each classroom. Carbon dioxide builds up when the air people exhale becomes trapped in poorly ventilated rooms.

In fact, a recent survey of elementary-school personnel by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health suggests that up to 70 percent of the Commonwealth's 1020 public elementary schools have air-quality problems as a result of mold, mildew, poor ventilation, or chemical exposure. It's no wonder, since Massachusetts spends less per student on school-building repair than any other state. Only one state -- Ohio -- has more school buildings with at least one faulty feature (a leaky roof, bad ventilation, or inadequate heating sources, for example), according to a study released in March by the Tax Equity Alliance for Massachusetts, using statistics from the US Census Bureau's Annual Survey of Government Finances.

Unfortunately, funding restrictions such as Proposition 2¹/₂ have prevented local governments from increasing repair budgets, and the legislature has been unresponsive to proposals aimed at freeing more funds. And lack of money isn't the only problem. Principals say that they have no guidelines for maintaining air quality in the schools and no one to report problems to, and environmentalists say school officials often don't have the information they need to identify sick buildings and avoid problems like the ones that shut the Hastings school down.

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Deteriorating buildings have long been associated with medical problems such as asthma, upper respiratory illness, and allergies, especially in children. According to a national study released on July 12 by the pharmaceutical company Pharmacia & Upjohn, 13 million children between the ages of six and 13 suffer from severe allergic reactions. Of those, 57 percent are allergic to dust, 49 percent to dust mites, and 46 percent to mold -- all of which are common in schools with such problems as poor ventilation and leaking roofs.

According to the study, 29 percent of the children say they believe their health problems have affected their test scores. Forty-three percent have missed at least five days of school, according to parents. And 43 percent report social problems such as teasing or ostracism by fellow students who fear catching their illnesses.

"There is also other data that links poor air quality to illnesses [such as asthma and allergies] and such illnesses to poor learning capabilities," says Boston University School of Public Health professor William Patterson, who is chairman of the medical policy board at Occupational Health and Rehabilitation, Inc., a company that researches and treats environmentally related illnesses. "My clinical practice is in environmental medicine, and I often get students and teachers who have been made sick by their schools."

"We know that this has been a problem for a long time," says Laurie Stillman, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, a 110-year-old nonprofit organization made up of more than 1200 health professionals. "Asthma and the symptoms associated with asthma are skyrocketing among children. In Massachusetts, 20 percent of our elementary-school kids have it."

Stillman points to three main reasons for the poor air quality in Massachusetts schools. A third of the state's public schools were built before World War II, she points out, and now they're virtually crumbling. Newer schools have problems too. Buildings that date from the energy-crisis years of the 1970s incorporated cheap and sometimes faulty ventilation systems. And some schools built within the past decade used toxic materials that may release harmful chemicals into the air. Chemicals such as those found in pesticides, cleaning fluids, treated carpeting, and certain paints and markers all damage air quality, particularly when stored improperly.

"[Newer] schools were built to conserve energy," explains Stillman. "Hence the use of crude ventilation systems." Worse, she says, the systems were never maintained. "Filters have not been changed, clogged ducts have not been cleared. In one school the system that was supposedly cleaning the breathing air for students was caked thick with bird feces."

Maintenance, of course, costs money, and that's in chronically short supply. Many schools cut corners when they do attempt repairs, according to Tolle Graham, coordinator of an environmental coalition called the Massachusetts Healthy Schools Network. The result is that renovations end up disturbing dormant contaminants and releasing them into the air.

"In this state there is a low-bid policy," Graham explains. "So when contractors bid on a job such as school repairs, they bid low, often eliminating the cost of the extra steps necessary to maintain a healthy environment at the work site." Often, she adds, contractors work during the school day to avoid paying workers a higher nighttime rate, so students, teachers, and staff end up breathing dust and fumes from construction.

Part of the funding problem is that money for school repairs comes from local property taxes, points out Massachusetts Teachers Association president Stephen Gorrie, who himself suffered repeated respiratory infections while working in a 100-year-old school. Since the passage of Proposition 2¹/₂ , in 1980, towns have not been allowed to raise their property taxes by more than 2¹/₂ percent per year. Some help is available from the state, which reimburses communities part of the cost of school repairs, renovation, and construction. Right now, however, much more money is available for capital construction than for individual repairs, so Gorrie, Stillman, and other advocates say it may make more sense to build new schools than try to renovate old ones.

Besides, the Department of Education has a backlog already. Fifty-eight schools are awaiting reimbursement for repairs already completed; 104 more are awaiting the funding to move forward with repairs; and 59 new schools are waiting to be built. And state authorities say these lists underestimate the number of schools stuck in repair limbo.

Last December, State Representative James Marzilli (D-Arlington) tried to address the funding problem with a bill that would restore the state capital-gains tax to 5.95 percent and earmark half the total capital-gains revenue for school repairs. (Under a 1994 law, the state imposes lower and sometimes no taxes on many capital gains.) "Essentially, it would create a permanent revenue stream," Marzilli explains. The bill was sent to study by the House Committee on Taxation, which means essentially that it was killed. Representative Kay Khan (D-Newton) filed a bill at the same time allowing school building-assistance funds, which normally cover expenses such as supplies and furniture, to be used for major repairs. That bill suffered the same fate as Marzilli's. Still being considered by the Education Committee is a bill filed by Representative Douglas Petersen (D-Marblehead) that would establish a commission of school and environmental officials to propose ideas for improving the condition of the state's schools. Petersen's bill, however, would not immediately free funding for repairs.

Right now, the only remaining hope is an increase in federal funding. Senator Ted Kennedy is backing a $25 billion bond bill for school repairs and construction that would provide $309 million for Massachusetts and an additional $93 million for Boston. The bill is still being debated in Washington.

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Relatively inexpensive short-term solutions can help somewhat, local environmental advocates say. The Massachusetts Healthy Schools Network has funds to help schools put together committees of teachers, principals, and parents to assess environmental needs, according to Tolle Graham. And Richard Reibstein, assistant director for the state Executive Office of Technical Assistance for Toxic Use Reduction, has drawn up chemical-storage guidelines that could reduce toxic fumes at schools. Reibstein also knows of several companies that sell environmentally safe cleaning and art supplies to schools.

For its part, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is setting up a system for schools to report air-quality problems and training local health officials to respond. Graham has also obtained guidelines for keeping dust and fumes to a minimum during repair work.

The best long-term answer, however, is one that will require an infusion of cash: enlisting the help of architectural specialists to construct healthy schools from the ground up.

The Turner Group, a New Hampshire architecture and engineering firm that specializes in healthy school design, has built more than 15 schools since it was founded in 1990. "It's just a matter of using different lighting, acoustics, and ventilation," explains Loren Belida, an architect and co-owner of the Turner Group. The firm is working on two new schools in Massachusetts: the Nashoba Regional High School, a $23 million project, and the Oakmont Regional High School, a $39 million project.

Although that may seem like a lot of money, says Belida, it is cost-efficient in the long run. Not only will it decrease the need for major repairs down the road, but it will make schools better at doing what they're supposed to do: helping kids learn.

"Sick schools is not a new concept," says Belida. "It's time they stopped putting a band-aid on the problem."

Sarah McNaught can be reached at smcnaught[a]phx.com.