Support for The Clean and Healthy Schools Act
Read and sign the pledge
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, strongly support H.389, The Clean and Healthy Schools Act. We represent a diverse cross-section of organizations, government agencies, institutions, and individuals who have interest and expertise in the fields of public health, education, toxicology, children’s health, environmental justice, occupational health, commercial cleaning, and environmentally preferable purchasing. We want to protect the health of Vermont’s children, teachers, and custodial staff during the many hours they spend in our schools, and H.389 will do this by requiring schools to use environmentally preferable cleaning and maintenance products that have fewer toxic, hazardous chemicals.
Cleaning products used in schools contain a wide variety of hazardous chemicals that can cause asthma, cancer, reproductive harm, and damage to the body’s nervous system and internal organs. Chemicals in cleaners are a cause of the poor indoor air quality in schools, which contributes to lower productivity and academic achievement, absenteeism, worker injury, asthma and other diseases. Nearly 10,000 out of Vermont’s 94,000 school children have asthma; and teachers and custodians have been found to have higher rates of asthma than the general workforce by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Asthma is the leading cause of absenteeism from a chronic illness in school children and is the primary cause of hospitalization for children under the age of 15. U.S. annual expenditures for health and lost productivity due to asthma alone are estimated at nearly $20 billion nationally.
Thankfully, there are now hundreds of cost effective, less-toxic commercial and institutional cleaning products available on the market that have been independently certified by reputable organizations to exclude carcinogens, reproductive toxins, asthmagens, and other hazardous chemicals. The states of New York, Connecticut, and Illinois have already adopted laws requiring schools to switch to green cleaning products, with more bills pending in other states. The State of Vermont has required the use of least-toxic cleaning products for State buildings since 2004. Many Vermont schools have already made the switch to green cleaners, reducing absenteeism, and improving staff and student health.
There is no economic or environmental reason that schools should continue to expose children and staff to hazardous chemicals from cleaning products. Using green cleaners is an easy, affordable way for schools to safeguard health and improve the learning environment. For these reasons, we urge you to support H.389.
Read and sign the pledge
Healthy Schools
Cleaning is an essential process to ensure sanitary conditions in our public places and to protect public health. Unfortunately, asthma has been directly linked to the use of or exposure to conventional cleaning products and children are much more susceptible to the toxic effects of these chemicals. Environmentally preferable cleaning products are widely available, affordable and improve the indoor air quality (IAQ) in Vermont schools
Chemical Exposure at Schools
Pound for pound, children breathe more air than adults and have frequent hand-to-mouth contact which can lead to the accidental ingestion of harmful chemicals. |
Parents should never have to worry that their children might be exposed to toxic chemicals when attending school. Unfortunately, harmful chemicals in cleaning products and pesticides pollute indoor and outdoor air quality and pose potential risks to our children's health.
Science has linked exposure to certain toxic chemicals with an array of health effects that can impair children's ability to grow, learn, play and eventually become productive working adults. Institutional cleaning products and pesticides can contain ingredients that have been linked to new onset asthma, cancer, reproductive problems, developmental disorders, and hormone disruption. While children are the most vulnerable to chemical exposures, adults, including teachers and custodial staff also face risks. In fact, custodians have one of the highest rates of occupational asthma. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, 8.7% of poisonings during 2007 were from household cleaning products.
Children are the Most Vulnerable
Children are more heavily exposed to environmental toxins than adults. Pound-for-pound, children breathe more air, drink more water, and eat more food than adults. Thus, they are more exposed to whatever toxins are present in those media. Children’s exposures are further increased by the fact that they tend to play close to the ground and to engage in repeated hand-to-mouth activity. In addition:
- Children are less able to metabolize and excrete most toxic substances
- Children have rapidly developing organ systems –the central nervous system, reproductive organs, immune system, and lungs-are highly susceptible to toxic insult
- Because children have more future years of life than adults, they are more susceptible to chronic, multistage diseases such as cancer or neurodegenerative disease that may be triggered by early exposures.
Childhood exposures to industrial chemicals in the environment are associated with:
- Cancer
- Damage to the developing brain
- Autism
- Attention deficit disorder (ADD)
- Learning disabilities
- Mental retardation
Green Cleaning in Vermont Environmentally preferable purchasing of cleaning products is part of the Vermont Envision Program, a voluntary indoor air quality program established by Act 125. |
We Must Protect Our Children
Providing the safest and healthiest learning environments for our 105,000 school children should be a priority for the state of Vermont. Exposure to toxic chemicals in cleaning products and pesticides can have detrimental effects on our most vulnerable population.
Children have developing organs, do not detoxify as quickly, and breath more air per pound of body weight than adults. Adverse exposures and injuries during childhood may have a lifetime impact on health. These impacts ar not only physically dangerous for the students, but create environments where it can become difficult to learn.
Although Vermont's Envision Program is charged with assisting schools and improving indoor air quality and environmental health, the program is voluntary and has not proven successful in protecting the majority of Vermont's children. It is clear that more needs to be done.
The Alliance for a Clean and Healthy Vermont will work to ensure that school throughout the state are free from toxic chemicals and put the safety and health of our children first.
Quick Facts:
- The natural tendencies and developing bodies of children increase their vulnerability to toxic chemicals.
- Only 23 schools have been certified by Vermont's Envision Program to date.
- State Buildings have been required to purchase "green" cleaning products since 2004 as part of the Clean State Program.
- The use of "green" cleaning products by both the state and participating schools demonstrates that switching to these products is cost neutral.
- According to a 2002 Vermont Public Interest Research Group survey, at least 32,800 Vermont students are at risk of being exposed to the harshest toxic pesticides while at school.
- 20% of the US population occupies elementary and secondary schools.
- IAQ in half of our public schools was rated as unsatisfactory by the EPA.
- Indoor concentrations of pollutants are commonly 3 to 5 times higher than outdoor concentrations.
- Conventional cleaning products may contain ingredients that are known or suspected carcinogens, hormone disruptors and/or reproductive toxins in addition to creating new onset asthma or causing asthma episodes.
- Custodians use an estimated 194 pounds of cleaning chemicals a year and 25% or 48.5 pounds are hazardous materials.
- Known consequences of poor indoor air quality are:
- Asthma
- Chronic respiratory illnesses
- Sick Building Syndrome
- Allergies and sensitivities caused by low levels of common chemicals including volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
- Loss of productivity
Safer, Effective and Affordable Alternatives
Independently third-party certified products are equally effective and affordable, and are carried by all the major distributors in Vermont. Third-party certification screens products against a list of criteria that exclude ingredients identified as:
• asthmagens
• volatile organic compounds
• carcinogens
• reproductive toxins
• skin sensitizers
• bioaccumulating compounds
• ozone-depleting chemicals
• toxic to aquatic life
• mutagens
Other criterion requires environmentally preferable packaging and that products be as effective as the conventional products they are replacing.
Solutions That Can Win
1) We must mandate the use of environmentally preferable cleaning products at school facilities.
Environmentally preferable cleaning products are safer for human health and the environment than traditional cleaning products and are performance-verified as well. The use of "green" cleaning products by both the state and participating schools demonstrates that switching to these products is cost neutral. It is time for the rest of Vermont's schools to follow suit.
2) We must eliminate the use of the worst pesticides at schools and provide schools with the tools necessary to prevent pests through least-toxic methods.
Pesticides are poisons that are intended to kill. When applied on school grounds, pesticides can contaminate the air, soil, and water and can easily come in contact with children. Vermont needs to eliminate the use of the worst pesticides at school facilities and employ strong and thoughtful Integrated Pest management (IPM) strategies designed to address the sources of pest problems via the least-toxic methods possible.
