Hunting an Invisible Hazard - Is there Something in the Air at Schools? Portables May Have Problems...

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SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

HUNTING AN INVISIBLE HAZARD

IS THERE SOMETHING IN THE AIR AT SCHOOL?

PORTABLES MAY HAVE PROBLEMS; DATA LACKING

Saturday, June 5, 1999

BY GLENNDA CHUI, Mercury News Staff Writer

Caption: PHOTO: PENNY DE LOS SANTOS -- MERCURY NEWS

Students return to their portable classrooms after recess at the Hellyer

School in San . Portables may be more prone to ventilation problems and

water leaks that contribute to dirty air in all types of school buildings in

the state.

Despite alarms raised by an environmental group, there are no scientific

data to show that the air in portable classrooms is less healthy than in

conventional ones, according to experts in indoor air quality.

But there are indications that portables may be more prone to ventilation

problems and water leaks that contribute to dirty air in all types of school

buildings across California, according to a draft report released Friday by

a statewide task force.

''These units have endemic indoor environmental quality problems,'' said the

report by the California Interagency Working Group on Indoor Air Quality,

which includes experts from state and federal agencies, research

laboratories and groups such as the American Lung Association.

The task force noted that some portables have no way to draw in fresh air.

Others get air only when the heater or air conditioner is on. Even good

ventilation systems get turned off because they're too noisy.

Portables may also be more vulnerable to water damage from leaky roofs and

condensation, the task force said, although there have been no surveys to

pin down whether this impression is correct.

Nonetheless, air pollution experts say it would be a mistake to focus

attention on portables alone.

The task force is recommending a statewide investigation into environmental

conditions inside all types of classrooms. And it is asking the state to set

up a central authority to monitor school design and maintenance and to train

school staff in ways to keep their premises healthy.

''There's nothing to support that portables are intrinsically bad,'' said

Jed Waldman, chief of the state health department's indoor air quality

section and leader of the task force.

''But there is something to say that when classrooms are not designed, built

and maintained properly, they become environmentally unsound. That's true of

your office. It's true of your home. But it's especially true of classrooms,

because you have a lot of people in a small place'' -- about five times the

density of a typical office.

Problems in classrooms

Classrooms of all types suffer from poor ventilation, a lack of maintenance

and other conditions that dirty the air, researchers say.

Even attempts to make classes quieter and more comfortable can backfire:

Carpets collect dust that can trigger allergies or asthma. Air conditioning

systems can harbor mold or bacteria.

Since no one routinely samples the air in California schools, no one knows

how many classrooms suffer from polluted air, which can cause irritated eyes

and throats, an inability to concentrate, headache, allergic reactions,

difficulty breathing and -- in rare cases -- severe, even permanent injury.

''You don't know if you're talking about 10 or 20 percent or 1 or 2

percent'' of students who are breathing bad air, said Joan Daisey, head of

the indoor environment department at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,

who has reviewed hundreds of scientific reports and complaints about

classroom air quality.

Based on that review, Daisey estimates that 20 percent to 30 percent of

schoolrooms lack ventilation -- the factor most often associated with

complaints of health problems due to indoor air pollution.

In a report released May 27, the Environmental Working Group charged that

two million California children who go to school in portables may be exposed

to unhealthy levels of toxic chemicals such as formaldehyde, benzene and

toluene. These gases, known as volatile organic compounds, waft out of

particle board, new carpeting, fresh paints, furniture and other materials.

The group estimated that some children may be exposed to levels of

formaldehyde that, if they continued through 13 years of schooling, would

cause two to three times the number of cancers allowed by government

standards. That translates to two to three cancers per million people over a

lifetime.

While the state report released Friday did not address the issue of cancer

risks from toxic chemicals, air quality experts say the environmental

group's report overstates the danger.

The people who manufacture portables say they're being unfairly singled out.

''The buildings we build now are built to the same standards as permanent

schools,'' including those governing ventilation, said ,

president of Modtech Inc. in Perris, which makes about a third of the

portables sold to California school districts.

The Environmental Working Group is calling for a survey of air quality in

portable classrooms, limits on the levels of indoor pollutants that students

breathe and policies that require builders to use less toxic materials in

portables.

It is also backing a bill by Assemblyman , D-San Francisco,

that would direct the state to review the design of schools to see if they

can be made healthier. The bill would also require teaching school staff how

to improve indoor air quality and mandate regular audits of potential

problems such as poor ventilation or mold.

Portables are under increased scrutiny because their numbers are mushrooming

in California due to swelling enrollments and state-mandated smaller class

sizes for children in kindergarten through third grade. The Environmental

Working Group estimates that there are now more than 86,000 in use.

In an incident three years ago, a parent became ill after spending time in a

portable classroom at Christa McAuliffe Elementary School in Cupertino.

The school district had the portable and other school buildings tested, said

Chuck Corr, director of facilities modernization for the Cupertino Union

School District. ''We had the EPA working with us and we were never able to

find a single thing that was a problem.''

The Cupertino experience is apparently not unusual, according to Daisey's

review of 147 complaints nationwide.

In many cases, she found, investigators reported either undetectable

levelsof volatile organic compounds in problem classrooms or concentrations

no higher than those in a typical home. Where high concentrations were

found, they were traced to specific sources such as photocopiers.

Limited investigation

She noted, however, that the health effects of exposure to many indoor air

pollutants, including the volatile organic compounds, ''have been

investigated to only a very limited extent.''

Daisey said that while she doesn't think parents should be unduly worried

about the air schoolchildren breathe, ''I think it's time for the state to

get more concerned.''

She added, ''I don't think you should run out and start passing a lot of

legislation until you find out what the extent of the problem is.''