Page 2 - Indoor Air Quality 3Roda

Indoor Air Quality and School Absenteeism:

6 Illnesses That Keep Students Home

How School Buildings Impact Student Health and Attendance and What

You Can Do About It.

For school districts around the world, few issues are particularly vulnerable to their harmful effects.
matter more than student attendance.
“The evidence is unambiguous — the school building
In the U.S alone, each year more than 7 million impacts student health,” concluded a Harvard School
students are chronically absent, at high cost. of Public Health report.
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Student achievement, graduation rates, employment
prospects, indeed success in life — all are linked to The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
attendance. In most states, so is school funding. reports that on K-12 campuses, indoor air quality
problems can pose a “serious health threat” and
Among the many causes of absenteeism — poor notes that student exposure to indoor air pollutants
grades, bullying, unstable housing — one in particular has increased in recent decades. 3
is often overlooked: illness. When students miss
school because of a stomach bug, strep throat, or
asthma, schools may reason, How much can we really
do?

A great deal, in fact.

That’s because many illnesses that keep students
home are triggered or exacerbated by the school
building itself.

MOULD
Over the course of their education, a child will spend
more than 15,000 hours at school, where germs and
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BACTERIA DUST POLLEN pollutants are emitted by countless sources. Among
them: a sneeze or a cough, an idling school bus,
cleaning solvents, an off-gassing carpet, science lab
chemicals, vaping devices, cockroach dander, moldy
DANDER VIRUS VOCs
ceiling tiles, dusty classroom toys, and ragweed
pollen wafting in through a window.

Invisible but potent, airborne contaminants are
Classrooms, cafeterias, libraries, and gyms — even commonly swallowed or inhaled by students.
when cleaned to high standards — are reservoirs Infectious or toxic particles also settle on surfaces,
for biological and chemical contaminants, including only to be touched by students or kicked back up
bacteria, viruses, mould spores, and volatile organic into the air.
compounds (VOCs). And children, with immature
immune systems and narrower airways than adults, The upshot: missed school days. Asthma, on the rise

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