What air do we breathe in the indoor environments? Preliminary assessments, results and the impacts on school children in Tangipahoa Parish, LA

Clean indoor air can protect human health because people spend as much as 90-95% of time in these environments.  The U.S. EPA states that indoor air quality (IAQ) can be three to five times poorer than the outdoor environments.  A high correlation exists between poor IAQ and cases of asthma and other respiratory illnesses.  The Centers for Diseases Control has concluded that poor IAQ in schools can impact the health of the minority children, and their academic achievements due to frequent absenteeism.  

An IAQ improvement program was started in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana. With the support of the U.S. EPA, and the use of the Tools for School (TfS) kit, the top management commitment of the school board and the school principals was sought and IAQ coordinators were trained.  This was followed by the assessments of the schools in the form of walkthroughs and air quality monitoring.   Finally, surveys of the teachers and parents were completed.  

This paper presents the preliminary assessments and results in public schools in Tangipahoa Parish Schools, in Louisiana, including the successes and challenges of implementing this program.  The potential sources of poor quality of indoor air include the idling school buses, combustible products, dust, and off-gassing from classroom carpets.  The IAQ assessments showed at times classrooms had high relative humidity and high CO₂ of CO₂  of 85-90% and 3000 ppm, respectively; and while parent surveys show an average of three to five asthma incidents in children, teachers signaled children’s inability to concentrate in the classrooms.