Back to School IAQ Alert 1
The lack of maintenance and repairs is a major source of indoor air quality problems in many schools but paint-up and fix-up projects can also cause poor indoor air quality.
A parent writes to Healthy Kids ( www.healthy-kids.info) "...Every September on the first day of school we are greeted with the heavy smell of fresh paint, cleaning solutions, etc. While I applaud the maintenance efforts certainly painting could be scheduled so the school would air out before school opens. These smells permeate the building?? along with the usual heavy, humid and stale air associated with the summer. During my daughter's second grade year she attended the first couple of days of school and missed the next two and a half weeks due to asthma -- the smell of paint was particularly strong that year.... D.B. Massachusetts
Most experienced parents have learned that sending kids back to school can lead to a sharp increase in common childhood illnesses and related symptoms such as a stuffy nose, headaches, rashes, sore throat, red itchy eyes, restlessness, stomach aches, drowsiness or asthma. Although frequently blamed on germs or stress, those same symptoms can be caused by an unhealthy school environment.
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