Head Start programs, serving preschool children, are often located in older buildings. These older buildings may have indoor air quality problems, thus leading to environmental health risks for children and adults who generally spend up to 8 hours daily in the buildings. Poor indoor air quality has been linked to acute and chronic respiratory problems, particularly increases in asthma exacerbations among children. The EPA’s program, Indoor Air Quality: Tools for Schools provides guidance to school personnel to improve indoor air quality in educational settings. We implemented EPA’s Tools for Schools program in six local Head Start centers in Birmingham, AL. In an asthma surveillance study, we found that approximately 16% of the Head Start children had a doctor diagnosis of asthma, while 8% of the children had chronic respiratory symptoms (without an asthma diagnosis). In this presentation we will discuss implementation of the program, as well as program outcomes. Previous work has suggested that Head Start settings offer an ideal opportunity to intervene early in the course of disease in high-risk children with asthma.
Learning Objectives: 1. Identify respiratory disease rates in Head Start children. 2. Identify types of environmental risks found in child care settings. 3. Describe the implementation of EPA’s Indoor Air Quality: Tools for Schools in a Head Start setting.
Keywords: Head Start, Indoor Environment
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: EPA's program, Indoor Air Quality: Tools of Schools
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.