Sick School Syndrome

The term "sick school syndrome," does not apply to truants or to those reluctant students who are sick of attending school. Rather it refers to a growing number of innocent schoolhouse occupants who are being made sick at school, because of the myriad poorly understood and poorly controlled sensitizing, environmental hazards. Little is known about the toxicological properties of the more than 70,000 chemicals in commerce. Inadequate testing of chemicals to which the public is exposed presents a serious public health risk, particularly to children whose nervous systems are still developing (until age 20). Children have the right to realize their full potential. When a society allows its children to be exposed to substances that have not been adequately tested, it denies its children that right. We are gambling with our children's health!

Two factors have conspired to turn our modern schoolhouses into toxic terrariums. First, we are overly reliant on synthetic chemicals (in construction, renovation, furnishing, maintenance and pest control materials). Second, since the early 1970's we've rushed to tighten our schools and make them energy efficient. No one seemed to notice that these "hermetically sealed" structures were compromising indoor air quality and subsequently the well-being and cognitive ability of the schools' occupants. Winston Churchill tried to warn us, when he insightfully said, "We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us."

THE SICK SCHOOL SYNDROME which scars the body and the mind, is a prescription for disaster and disability. Schools from New Hampshire to California have been closed due to indoor air quality problems!