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By Deborah Moore & Janine Kubert

Have you ever had a hard time breathing? Or a cough that wouldn’t go away? The American Lung Association’s tag line was “If you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.”  So, imagine what a school day is like for the more than one million children in California that have asthma. Asthma is the primary cause of hospitalization for California children under age 15 and is the leading cause of school absences due to chronic illness. California public schools lose an estimated $40.8 million from asthma absences of 12-17 year olds. Teachers and janitors also suffer high rates of work-related asthma.

A new study of air pollution caused by school cleaning supplies, conducted by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), reveals that cleaning supplies used in 13 key California school districts could be clouding classroom air with more than 450 distinct toxic contaminants, including chemical agents linked to asthma and cancer.
More than 20 school cleaning products - all chosen by major California school districts, were tested for the study.  The cleaning products ranged from conventional products, to products advertised as green, to products that are green certified by Green Seal and EcoLogo. The EWG technicians cleaned a model classroom with multi-purpose cleaners, floor cleaners, glass cleaners, bathroom cleaners, disinfectants, floor treatments, a floor stripper, a graffiti remover, a metal cleaner, and an air freshener. 

The results? Ten products tested contain one or more of the chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer or reproductive or developmental toxicity. The worst brand offenders include Comet Disinfectant Powder Cleanser, Febreze Air Effects, and Simple Green.

Many schools are already taking action to curb children’s exposure to hazardous conventional cleaning products, examining their cleaning practices and transitioning to certified green cleaners to ensure that their facilities are healthy and environmentally safe.  Several California school districts have already adopted green cleaning policies, and many have saved money by replacing a “ready to use” conventional cleaning product with a highly concentrated, certified green cleaner, using automatic dilution equipment that mechanically prevents over-use of cleaning chemicals, and negotiating long-term purchasing contracts at discounted prices rather than buying month-to-month.

One successful example of schools taking action on green cleaning is the Novato Unified School District in California (NUSD). John Silvestrini, director of facilities, has supported the district’s Green Team effort to improve indoor air quality, along with parents, nurses, administrators, principals, and local nonprofit leaders.  “Poor indoor air quality is an invisible enemy of students and educators alike, triggering allergies and asthma, contributing to absenteeism, and reducing productivity,” says Silvestri. 
The NUSD Green Team removed unapproved cleaning supplies from classrooms, and the district provided teachers with a list of approved cleaning supplies which were at first paid for by the PTA. Then in 2008-2009, NUSD began the school year with all Green Seal Certified cleaning supplies by Buckeye International, at no additional cost.

“We were motivated by our primary mission: educating children,” says Silvestrini. “If a school district cannot provide a healthy and safe environment conducive to student achievement, it impairs its own ability to fulfill its mission to educate students to their full potential.” Other school districts successfully implementing green cleaning include: Elk Grove, Fairfield-Suisun, Fresno, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz, with many more districts initiating pilot projects. Santa Cruz, in fact, has adopted a comprehensive “environmentally preferable purchasing policy” encouraging the district to buy environmentally-friendly and less-toxic products across a range of categories.

Green cleaning in schools is a growing trend. In addition to school districts, legislators across the nation have begun taking action to support green cleaning practices in schools. Over the past five years, eight states (New York, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Connecticut, Maryland, Nevada, and Hawaii) have passed legislation requiring or encouraging use of these green cleaning products in schools.

In California, Assemblywoman Julia Brownley (D-41st District) introduced legislation in early 2009 that would require all K-12 schools to adopt the use of certified green cleaning products if they could do so at the same cost.  The Clean and Healthy Schools Act (AB 821) is currently before the Assembly’s appropriations committee for consideration. 

In addition to supporting these efforts, what can you do to keep the air in classrooms clean?

• Ascertain what cleaning products are used at your school. Use the Green Schools Buying Guide to learn what hazardous chemicals to avoid and how to identify green cleaning products and best practices (as well as information about how to purchase a wide range of environmentally preferable products for your school, from paper to building materials; from green playground equipment to compostable foodware).

• Implement EPA’s Tools for Schools IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) program and encourage green cleaning district-wide. Undertake a pilot project to test safer cleaning products using the steps and tools developed for the Cleaning for Asthma Safe Schools (CLASS) Pilot Project.

• Adopt a district-wide Cleaning for Healthy Schools Policy by sharing green cleaning success stories from schools in California and other states, including best practices that can save money, such as the use of certified green products, long-term contracts, and dilution equipment.

•Ensure your district follows California Department of Public Health guidance, for proper disinfection practices, avoids overusing disinfectants, and selects less-toxic registered disinfectants when possible, such as those with accelerated hydrogen peroxide. Promote proper hand washing with regular soap and water (antibacterial soaps are no more effective and can actually be harmful).

• Avoid bringing in cleaners from home for classroom use that do not meet the school’s green guidelines.

• At home, you can use green cleaners or make your own non-toxic cleaners for pennies. Women’s Voices for the Earth has reports and recipes on safe alternatives for household cleaning products.

If you can’t breathe, you can’t learn. So, make your school a healthy, toxics-free environment!

Deborah Moore is the Executive Director of the Green Schools Initiative, making K-12 schools across California healthy and sustainable places for kids to work, learn, and play.

Janine Kubert is the Outreach and Education Coordinator at Green Schools Initiative.

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