**Healthy Schools Network, Inc.**

Invited testimony before the US Senate

Committee on Environment and Public Works

Green Buildings:

Benefits to Health,

the Environment, and the Bottom Line

May 15, 2007

Washington, DC

Presented by Claire L. Barnett, MBA

*Coordinator, Coalition for Healthier Schools and*

*Founding Executive Director, Healthy Schools Network*

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**Introduction**

Good morning. Thank you Senators Boxer and Inhofe and the other members
of the US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for the
opportunity to present information on how the poor conditions of our
school buildings undermine children's health and interfere with learning
and what we can do to reverse that by building and operating healthy and
high performance schools.

Our children and grandchildren---yours and mine\-- are compelled to be
in school today. Yet, every day brings new reports of e-coli in school
water; schools sinking into landfills; closures due to mold
infestations; evacuations and ER trips prompted by chemical fumes;
schools on toxic sites; chemicals in closets from the 1840's; parents
told to keep their children away from unhealthy schools. No parent wants
that for their child and no one here would visit those threats on
anyone's else's child. But our society does. And the real shocker is
that all of those problems are easily avoided through the siting,
design, construction, and operations of our children's
workplaces---their school buildings.

School buildings can be designed and maintained in such a way that the
school facility itself promotes the health and well being of children,
and promotes and facilitates learning. A Healthy and High Performance
School dramatically improves the health and learning of students while
saving money for schools. Too often schools are unhealthy places that
impede learning, sicken children, teachers and staff and waste public
resources. The Healthy and High Performance School combines design
features that promote children's environmental health, environmental
sustainability, energy efficiency, reduced carbon emissions and save
money for education and their communities. Science-based policy and
action steps should be taken now to "design out" common problems and
ensure that all our children have environmentally healthy schools that
are clean and in good repair.

My name is Claire Barnett. I am the founding Executive Director of
Healthy Schools Network, Inc, and the Coordinator of the national
Coalition for Healthier Schools. Healthy Schools Network is a not for
profit research, information and education, and advocacy organization
that seeks to ensure that every child will have an environmentally
healthy school that is clean and in good repair. We have successfully
shaped and secured new polices, programs, and funds for schools, at home
in New York, and nationally, while our Clearinghouse has assisted
parents and schools in every state. The national Coalition provides "the
platform and the forum" for healthy school environments, endorsed by
over 520 organizations and individuals nationwide. My testimony is on
behalf of Healthy Schools Network and on behalf of participants in the
Coalition.

***Lessons Learned: A National Report***

**32,000,000 children: victims of a public health crisis**

*(national collaborative report, with 28 contributing groups, April
2006)*

**Georgia environmental advocate.**

**see**

**COALITION FOR HEALTHIER SCHOOLS: Issue Statement**

**Issue Background. Improving children's health, learning, the
environment, and communities.**

Each day over 53 million school children and 6 million adults - 20% of
the entire U.S. population - enter our nation\'s 120,000 school
buildings to teach and learn. Unfortunately, in too many cases, they
enter \"unhealthy" school buildings,\" that undermine learning and
health. Many school facilities have been poorly maintained and thousands
of our nation\'s schools remain severely overcrowded. Schools are often
sited next to industrial plants or on abandoned landfills; new schools
are built beyond safe walking or biking distance for students. In a
recent five-state survey, more than 1,100 public schools were built with
in a half-mile of a toxic waste site. Polluted indoor air, toxic
chemical and pesticide use, growing molds, lead in paint and drinking
water, and asbestos are also factors that impact the health of our
nation\'s students and school staff. These problems contribute to
absenteeism, student medication use, learning difficulties, sick
building syndrome, staff turnover, and greater liability for school
districts. The US Energy Dept. found schools could save billions of
dollars by installing energy efficient heating systems.

**32 million children at elevated risk of health problems caused by
decayed schools** *(Lessons Learned, 2006)**. ***According to US EPA,
\"Studies show that one-half of our nation\'s schools have problems
linked to indoor air quality. Students, teachers and staff are at
greater risk because of the hours spent in school facilities and because
children are especially susceptible to pollutants.\" Schools are also
more densely occupied and more intensively used than offices, which
contribute to the overall problem. Asthma is the leading cause of school
absenteeism and the leading occupational disease among teachers and
custodians. The increase in asthma problems is particularly acute in
urban areas with large numbers of African-American, Hispanic American
and other minority students. Children with preexisting health, learning,
or other special needs may be at greater risk.

**Federal agencies, states, communities, and education officials must
improve school environmental quality.** Federal agencies are well aware
that "**high performance school**" design and construction and
environmental management of facilities can produce healthier learning
environments. Key policy and program reforms include siting, design and
construction, and environmental management on issues such as "green
cleaning" and least-toxic pest control, as well as preventive repairs
that preserve neighborhood infrastructure and center communities on
children's needs.

At a time when this nation is committed to raising the academic
performance of all children, it is essential that the federal agencies
provide the knowledge, leadership and technical assistance that states,
cities, and schools need to ensure that every child, every school
employee, and every community has environmentally safe and healthy
schools that are clean and in good repair.

**Statement Sponsors:** American Association on Intellectual and
Developmental Disabilities, American Federation of State, County, and
Municipal Employees, Alliance for Healthy Homes, American Lung
Association, American Public Health Association, Beyond Pesticides,
Children\'s Environmental Health Network, Connecticut Foundation for
Environmentally Safe Schools, Environmental Defense, Funders Forum on
Environment and Education, Healthy Child Healthy World (CHEC), Healthy
Kids: The Key to Basics (MA), Healthy Schools Network, Improving Kids
Environment (IN), Institute for Children\'s Environmental Health,
Learning Disabilities Association of America, Marin Golden Gate Learning
Disabilities Association (CA), Massachusetts Healthy Schools Network,
National Center for Environmental Health Strategies, National Education
Association, National Education Association/Health Information Network,
National PTA, Natural Resources Defense Council, New Jersey Work
Environment Council, New Jersey Environmental Federation, Oregon
Environmental Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Public
Education Network, 21st Century Schools Fund, West Harlem Environmental
Action, League of Conservation Voters, National Clearinghouse for
Educational Facilities, National Association of Pediatric Nurse
Practitioners, Apollo Alliance, *and 500 more groups and individuals, as
of April 2007.*

**Overview**

Children are uniquely vulnerable to environmental contaminants, many of
which are found in schools. Children proportionately breathe more air,
drink more fluids, and eat more food than adults. Developing systems are
more vulnerable to environmental toxins than are fully developed adults.
Yet health standards for children's exposure to indoor environmental
contaminants do not exist. An often-cited U.S. General Accounting Office
report noted that children are compelled by law to attend school, yet
these school facilities may be unsafe or harmful to student health.

Children's exposure to environmental hazards at school contributes to
multiple health problems. Poor school indoor air is a major contributor
to causing and exacerbating asthma, which is well known to be at
epidemic proportions among school age children. Hazards in the school
environment are linked to a host of other health problems including
respiratory problems, poor concentration, rashes, headaches,
gastrointestinal problems, nervous system disorders, and cancers.
Nationally, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of children
afflicted with learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder, and autism. These conditions are also linked with
environmental toxins that may be found in the school environment.

The poor conditions of America's schools are well documented (and
endured by millions of children every day), and these deteriorating
school facilities contribute greatly to harmful environmental exposures.
As noted above, there is no system of environmental health protection
for children at school. The school environment is therefore unique, and
tragically, often fails in providing its most basic function, that is
providing a healthy and safe learning environment for students, teachers
and school staff.

**The "Green" or Healthy and High Performance School**

One answer to this complex problem is to have schools well designed from
the start. Communities across the nation are designing and building
healthy and high performance (or "green") schools that create
environments that improve learning, promote good health, are easier to
maintain, and cost less to operate than traditional school facilities.
Clean air, non-toxic building materials, daylighting and full-spectrum
lighting, state of the art thermal and acoustical engineering and energy
efficiency are incorporated into a holistic design and comprehensive
construction of a school. Demonstrated benefits include improved student
performance, improved child health, improved student attendance and
substantial operational savings. High performance schools mitigate poor
indoor air quality by using materials that do not off-gas hazardous
chemicals, by utilizing properly designed ventilation and air
conditioning systems, and focusing on preventative maintenance. In
addition to superior indoor air quality, healthy and high performance
schools provide improved student performance due to better lighting,
acoustics and thermal comfort. A healthy and high performance school
also saves up to 40% of the building's energy costs over the lifetime of
the facility. In addition, healthy and high performance schools can be
built at the same cost as conventional school facilities. These schools
then have an added benefit, saving districts substantial funds in
decreased energy and maintenance costs over the life of the building.

Across the country, communities are building Healthy and High
Performance ("green", sustainable) schools. Governors of both California
and New Jersey have issued Executive Orders requiring schools to be
built in accordance with High Performance/Green design standards. The
New York City Schools, our nation's largest district, just adopted a
Green Schools Guide blending US GBC's LEED-NC rating system with
elements of NY-CHPS, the NY Collaborative for High Performance Schools
design guidelines. Indeed the CHPS design model that began in CAL and is
adopted by Los Angeles and other large districts, has now been adapted
for use statewide into Washington, New York, Massachusetts, and New
Hampshire. These environmentally healthy design protocols will impact
billions of dollars of school construction and major renovations. More
states can and should do the same.

Indeed, school construction and school purchasing is a \$ 730 billion a
year decentralized market taking place in thousands of local
communities. Imagine if all 54 million children in our nation's 120,000+
public and private schools had environmentally healthy buildings. What a
transformation! And a ready market for green-rated product producers.

The health and learning benefits are known to federal agencies, as well
as to high-end real estate developers. But what are the real benefits to
our children?

A new National Research Council report "Green Schools: Attributes for
Health and Learning" is an excellent review of the hard sciences. Among
the findings, that 'green' has not been well defined; but that there is
a "robust literature" in the impacts of healthy school environments on
children, on attendance, on achievement and behavior, and on
productivity. Bear in mind the virtual epidemic of children with asthma,
autism, auto-immune disorders, visual, auditory, and other learning
challenges in school every day, [then consider]{.underline}:

[]{.mark}

[]{.mark}

-   **Robust body of evidence linking health to IAQ**

-   **Some evidence linking IAQ to productivity and learning**

-   **There is an association between excessive moisture, dampness,
    molds in buildings and adverse health outcomes**

-   **Key factors in IAQ: ventilation rate and effectiveness, filter
    efficiency, temperature and humidity control, control of excess
    moisture, O&M, maintenance**

-   **Indoor pollutants and allergens also linked to linked to
    respiratory and asthma symptoms *(HSN note\-- asthma is the leading
    occupational disease of teachers and of custodians) ***

-   **Reduced pollutant load (through increased ventilation and
    filtration) has been shown to reduce occurrence of
    building-associated symptoms**

-   **Work performance decreases with higher room temperatures**

-   **Green school lighting focuses on energy, not work performance**

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-   **Control glare when encouraging daylighting**

-   **Speaking and listening are key to learning**

-   **Sufficient evidence for inverse association between excessive
    noise and student learning**

-   **Infection control in densely occupied spaces requires cleaning and
    ventilation**

-   **More research will be helpful**

> ***Greening school design provides an extraordinarily cost-effective
> way to enhance student learning, reduce health and operational costs
> and, ultimately, increase school quality and competitiveness.***
>
> Gregory Katz, *Greening America's Schools: Costs and Benefits*,
> October 2006, Capital-E. 

**BACK TO BASICS**. No one should be surprised that children do better
with a little fresh air and sunshine and a quiet place in which to
learn.

The federal agencies like EPA and Education and CDC are aware of the
impacts of unhealthy schools on children's health, and the National
Academy of Sciences has produced a tremendous report summarizing the
peer reviewed literature on the health and learning attributes of
schools, finding that healthy indoor environments produce benefits.

What should a parent, teacher, school principal or a local school board
member or school head do?

One way to get usable information into their hands quickly and to
accelerate the number of schools taking action is to encourage states to
become active. Thus my own organization and the participants in the
national Coalition are supporting The High Performance Green Buildings
Act that would establish a federal office and advisory committee on
green buildings.

Focusing on Title II, the Healthy and High Performance Schools section,
we find that it will address many of the issues raised today. For
example,

**Grants to the states.** An important effort that will protect
taxpayers and protect children is to make sure that High Performance
Green buildings, once opened, stay green, and that localities don't
"lose" any more school facilities due to poor siting, design,
construction, operations, or ill-informed maintenance practices. This
puts a premium on rapidly disseminating US EPA's best practices for
healthy indoor environments, such as *IAQ Tools for Schools* and
*Healthy SEAT* into states and cities, thence into local schools,
allowing state agencies to mix and match energy, education, health, and
construction aid formulas for efficient and effective results.

[Title II authorizes EPA to make grants to qualified state
agencies]{.underline} to develop comprehensive school environmental
quality plans that address critical issues in design, construction,
siting, maintenance. It also would allow states to identify problems and
develop and disseminate solutions.

[Title II also directs EPA to develop model school siting
guidelines]{.underline}. Not one parent in the country wants their child
to go to school on a toxic waste site or in a swamp. Yet report after
report has found too many schools on such sites. Model guidelines for
the siting of schools would do much to alleviate the pressure to place
schools on compromised sites and would help communities reject proposals
to place hazards adjacent to or near existing schools.

[Title II also directs EPA to issue guidelines for the states to develop
and implement environmental health programs for schools]{.underline} in
research and in children's health protection. One feature that is
critical to protecting children caught in unhealthy conditions is
encouraging the states to collaborate with the federally designated and
funded Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units in on-site
environmental investigations of schools. Adults and children often have
the same exposures in schools; children may outnumber adults in schools
by ten to one and are more vulnerable to these hazards. Yet adults can
call upon contracts, unions, OSHA, NIOSH, Labor Departments,
occupational health clinics and more, while children and families have
no such system of environmental health services anywhere. In the
aftermath of September 11th, with local schools contaminated by fumes
and debris, not one agency stepped in when schools were re-opened
without appropriate, full remediation. This gap in services has a
perverse effect, depriving everyone\-- schools, agencies, parents and
children\-- of independent, full and complete assessments of hazards.
(*Schools of Ground Zero: Early Lessons Learned in Children's
Environmental Health,*, © APHA, Healthy Schools Network, Bartlett and
Petrarca, 2002).

As advocates for children's environmental health, we have worked
diligently to promote Healthy and High Performance school design in the
federal government, in the state houses, in local districts and with
parents, teachers and school personnel across the country. There is now
burgeoning interest across the country in "green" building and design as
an essential part of our commitment to protect our environmental
heritage.

Yet the additional benefits for our children, their health, and their
educational experience from designing in features that are
health-protective, in contrast to resource efficient, is at least as
great.

**The Bottom Line.** There is no downside to healthy and high
performance school design and operations. It improves children's health,
workers health, improves our environment, saves energy, and saves money
for education. As schools across the country are built, rebuilt and
renovated, we owe it to our children, their parents, their sponsoring
communities and the taxpayers to assure that they are designed and built
to specifications representing now proven state-of-the-art healthy and
high performance architectural standards.

**A vote for healthy schools is a vote for children, for environment,
for education, for health, and for communities.**

**Thank you.**

**References**

**Federal Executive Order 13045**---Protection of Children From
Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks, Federal Register: April 23,
1997 (Volume 62, Number 78),
<http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/eo/eo13045.htm>. Renewed 4/ 18/2003
**[(]{.underline}<http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030418-10.html>[)]{.underline}**

US Environmental Protection Agency,
[www.epa.gov/schools](http://www.epa.gov/schools) for an extensive
listing of EPA programs, also
<http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schooldesign/introduction.html> . Also see EPA's
"Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool" (SEAT) at
[www.epa..gov/schools]() for assessing the conditions and practices of
school buildings and identifying priority actions based on federal laws
and best practices.

***Building Healthy, High Performance Schools: A review of Selected
State and Local Initiatives***, Tobie Bernstein, Environmental Law
Institute, 2003
(<http://www.elistore.org/reports_details.asp?ID=10925&topic=Indoor_Environments>)

**The Collaborative for High Performance Schools**,
(<http://www.chps.net/>). **CHPS Best Practices Manual: Volumes I-IV.**
http://www.chps.net/manual/index.htm#v4, Collaborative for High
Performance Schools, CA, 2004. TO ORDER: Collaborative for High
Performance Schools, c/o Eley Associates, 142 Minna St., San Francisco,
CA 94105. Tel: (877) 642-2477.

***The Green Book***, 2^nd^ ed., American Academy of Pediatrics,
Committee on Environmental Health, 2003, see
<http://www.aap.org/visit/cmte16.htm>

*Science-Based Recommendations to Prevent or Reduce Potential Exposure
to Biological, Chemical, and Physical Agents in Schools,* Derek G.
Shendell, et al., **Journal of School Health** -- December 2004, Vol.
74, No. 10, a review of peer-reviewed publications and proceedings.

"Healthy and High Performance Schools Act", Sec. 5414 ff, **No Child
Left Behind**, defines healthy and high performance school and
authorizes a federal grant program to the states to implement local
information and technical assistance program; mandates Study of National
Significance on Unhealthy School Buildings.

*A Summary of Scientific Findings on Adverse Effects on Indoor
Environments on Student's Health, Academic Performance and Attendance*,
2004, US Department of Education, Office of the Under Secretary, Doc \#
2004-06, Washington, DDDC, 2004., prepared for Congress pursuant to
HHPS/NCLB.

***Healthier Schools: A Review of State Policies for Improving Indoor
Air Quality***, Tobie Bernstein, Environmental Law Institute, Jan. 2002
(<http://www.elistore.org/reports_detail.asp?ID=56&topic=Environmental_Health>

*Do Indoor Pollutants and Thermal Conditions In Schools Influence
Student Performance?* A Critical review of the Literature, M.J. Mendell,
G.A. Heath, Indoor Air, Volume 15 Issue 1 Page 27 -- January 2005

"Learning the Hard Way", Jn 2002 cover story, *Environmental Health
Perspectives*, Journal of the Natl. Inst. of Env. Health Sciences,
online at <http://www.healthyschhools.org/>

***Schools of Ground Zero: Early Lessons Learned in Children's
Environmental Health***, Sarah Bartlett and John Petrarca, American
Public Health Association and Healthy Schools Network, 2002, 300 pp.
Order through Healthy Schools Network or APHA.

C*reating Safe Learning Zones: Invisible Threats, Visible Actions*,
Center for Health, Environment and Justice, 2001, for sample policies
and GIS maps on schools built on or near Superfund and other hazardous
site. <http://www.childproofing.org/cslzindex.html>

**Do School Facilities Affect Academic Outcomes?**, Mark Schneider,
National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities, 2002, at
http://www.edfacilities.org or call 888-552-0624.

*Lessons Learned, 32,000,000 Children: Victims of a Public Health
Crisis*, Healthy Schools Network, Inc., April 2006.

<http://healthyschools.org/clearinghouse.html>

*New York State School Facilities and Student Health, Achievement, and
Attendance: A Data Analysis Report,* Healthy Schools Network, Inc.,
2005. <http://healthyschools.org/clearinghouse.html>

*Green Schools: Attributes for Health and Learning*, National Research
Council of the National Academy of Science, 2006.
<http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11756>

*Greening America's Schools: Costs and Benefits*, Gregory Katz, Capital
E, October 2006. <http://www.cap-e.com/ewebeditpro/items/O59F9819.pdf>

*Who's Sick at School: Linking Poor School Conditions and Health
Disparities for Boston's Children*, MassCOSH, March 2006.
<http://www.masscosh.org/SchoolsReport.pdf>

**Healthy Schools Network, Inc.**

**www.healthyschools.org**