In the article, The Toxic Classroom, by Dr Ann McCampbell, about how to create a healthy learning space, what makes a sick building and what people can do about it, there are some great tips for parents and teaching staff who are facing challenges presented by toxins and the way they effect those in the building. For not only can academic performance be impacted on, but also a child’s learning disability (or challenge, rather) can be increased too; but far more paramount to those are children’s (and adult’s) health issues! We, the people, need to advocate for our children. As Dr McCampbell has pointed out, we need to be proactive not only for our own kids but for all children; and when parents educate each other, they can then band together to help facilitate a healthier school environment. Once a school becomes aware that lowering the chemical load of the air space can save money, improve academic performance and increase the health of their students, how can they say no?
More, from The Toxic Classroom:
“As the public’s awareness of the link between chemical exposure and illness has grown, more and more parents have realized that schools, where children spend a sizeable portion of their days, may not be as safe as believed.
We turned to a leading expert on environmentally sick schools, Dr. Doris Rapp, author of Is This Your Child’s World? How You Can Fix the Schools and Homes that Are Making Your Children Sick, to learn more about what can be done to protect our children.”
Not all the tips in this article could be implemented by all schools, due to budget constraints; but it’s easy for them to do some of them, as has been shown in many schools around the globe, already. This article is also featured on Dr Ann McCampbell’s site, it was written in 2001, and published in Living Without magazine (a magazine for people with food and sensitivities). (As an aside, Dr McCampbell treats people who have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity; she is in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and her contact details can be found here.)
PS: Here is a school (Woodend Primary, in Victoria, Australia) that thought about these issues while building from the ground up. Fascinating!
Schools are one of the worst environments for me. You would hope that schools would be chemically safe but those of us with chemical sensitivities know that they are not.
It will improve in the future. We just need more educate (Pun intended.) That article was written a decade ago; so that shows how far we have come but also how far we have to go. I’d like to know how many schools have implemented safer learning environments.
GOOD INFO— I’M REBLOGGING— THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WISH MORE THOUGHT ABOUT THE UNSAFE SCHOOLS & UNSAFE CLASS ROOMS!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, Sonda. 🙂