Workers prepare for remediation
|
|
|  |
|
|
Schools Improve IEQ Through Proactivity
Health concerns initiate air quality improvements
by Mike Wowk, Detroit News
At Green Acres Elementary School in Warren, workers this week began removing asbestos-bearing ceiling and floor tiles. The school will have new heating, ventilation and air conditioning units installed in each classroom.
Schools improve air quality
Officials concerned about health
By Mike Wowk / The Detroit News
STERLING HEIGHTS -- When classes resume this fall, all Utica Community Schools buildings, which serve 28,000 students, are expected to be air-conditioned.
And the district's neighbor to the south, Warren Consolidated Schools, this summer will air-condition three of its older buildings -- the first phase of a project including all of its schools.
Comfort is just partly behind the cooling efforts. Officials in both districts, like counterparts nationwide, say such projects will improve air quality -- and breathing -- for students and staff.
Asthma, a chronic inflammatory lung disease that causes breathing difficulty, has reached epidemic proportions in recent years, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Children are particularly affected. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimate that five million children are among the 15 million Americans who suffer from asthma -- a 50-percent increase in 20 years.
Because children spend so much time in schools, government regulators have encouraged administrators to check indoor air quality.
Warren Consolidated Assistant Superintendent William Kiefer said the district occasionally gets complaints from students and staff about asthma or related allergic reactions. Identifying a cause is difficult at best, he said, but the district is taking no chances.
"We're going to completely redo our heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in all our buildings," Kiefer said. "Air conditioning alone will improve the indoor air quality because we're including air filtration systems."
Current renovations in Warren Consolidated will cost an estimated $140 million over five years, Kiefer estimated. In addition to a $93-million bond issue, voters there also approved a 1-mill sinking fund tax to finance future renovations.
Schools take action
Jack Barnette, chief of EPA indoor air programs for the region that includes Michigan, emphasized that federal efforts aimed toward schools is purely voluntary.
"But more and more schools are interested," he said. "With more kids being sick and teachers complaining, it's very important that they address these issues."
Researchers from the University of Michigan in 1998 embarked on a five-year, $2.4-million study to learn why children in southwest Detroit and on the city's east side have such high rates of asthma. The study is funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and the EPA.
One cause of bad-air complaints in schools and other buildings may be mold -- blamed for such diverse problems as watery eyes, bronchitis, asthma and memory loss.
In Romeo, Washington Elementary School closed for several months last year and its students transferred to other buildings while the district hired contractors to remove mold.
In Portland, Maine, one elementary school was permanently closed last year when mold was discovered.
In Macomb County's two largest districts, Utica and Warren Consolidated, voters in the past two years have approved large bond issues -- $130 million and $93 million, respectively -- forrenovations of 30-year-old buildings.
Utica's bond issue was approved in 2000; much of the work, both renovations and new construction, is in progress.
Air conditioning "was the No. 1 request from parents when we were planning for our bond issue," said Utica spokeswoman Hildy Corbett.
Warren Consolidated's bond issue was approved last fall. Work began this week at Green Acres Elementary in Warren and Harwood and Hatherly elementary schools in Sterling Heights.
The three were chosen as pilots because their designs typify all elementary schools in the 15,000-student district, said Warren Consolidated spokesman Robert Freehan.
Causes hard to find
At Green Acres, built in 1958, workers began this week by ripping out asbestos-bearing ceiling and floor tiles. New heating, ventilation and air conditioning units will be placed in each classroom, along with new energy-efficient windows and doors. The Harwood and Hatherly schools in coming months also will get new windows, doors and heating and cooling units.
Workers from Nova Environmental Inc. in Ann Arbor are on site at Green Acres school to monitor air samples during the asbestos removal, said vice president Kary Amin. His firm has done similar consulting work for other Michigan schools.
"We've seen an increase throughout the state (in complaints) in school buildings about asthma or allergies," Amin said. "But it's very difficult to find a smoking gun. There could be multiple factors, including the carpet fibers, the ventilation in the room or even the humidity."
Warren Consolidated installed roofing material about 12 years ago to reduce moisture and mold in schools, said Assistant Superintendent Kiefer, who added that the new roofs are still in great shape.
"It's like a skin. Since we installed it, we've had very few problems with mold," Kiefer said.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
|
|
| |
|
|
|
