Concerns about portable classrooms are making headlines in a number of California school districts and beyond. They're also suspected of causing illness in Illinois, Florida, Maine, and Ontario, Canada. Part of the problem may be the way portables are built. Manufacturers often use lightweight material like plywood and fiberglass, which are made with chemical adhesives and coated with solvents. You can find the same material in conventional buildings.
Portables are smaller, more tightly constructed, have fewer windows and less ventilation.
And if a portable classroom is closed up and can't breathe, those chemicals will build up in the air and create air quality problems. Randy Wittorp is with the Environmental Protection Agency. He says air quality is worse when a portable is new, so it's important for the building to air out. Too often, though, vents and windows are closed, and fans that bring in outside air are turned off. And it should actually be turned on about an hour before the classroom is occupied, to make sure that all of the pollutants that have built up inside the classroom have ventilated out of the building.