Indoor Environment & Toxics
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A sustainable indoor school
environment includes only materials, chemicals, designs and management strategies that promote learning, health, and well being, with related costs optimized over the life of the building.
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The quality of the indoor environment is dependent on many factors, and has a direct impact on human health and performance. Some of the factors such as nearby pollution sources and pre-existing ground contamination are determined already with site selection. Others come in with design and construction of the building, including selection of building materials, design of the HVAC system, lighting design and window placement. Building operation and maintenance such as cleaning and maintenance frequency and practices are important IEQ factors. The occupants themselves impact IEQ with the products they bring into the building. A number of factors are naturally occurring substances that are not possible to eliminate but must be controlled with proper management, including mold, pests and pollen.
Good indoor environmental quality (IEQ) includes both good indoor air quality (IAQ) and other optimal design and operation factors such as lighting, temperature, acoustics, views to the outside. Avoiding toxic materials also eliminates environmental and human impacts that they may have before and after use at the school, such as during their manufacture, transport and final disposition.
Those involved with all these stages of the building need to work together. It’s important to recognize and include all the stakeholder groups involved.
Presumed acceptable levels for exposure to some of these toxic materials have been established for adults but only rarely for children. Children are much more susceptible than adults because they consume more per pound of body weight, their activities can result in greater contact with these substances, and their developing bodies are more readily affected, sometimes with consequences that don’t appear until adulthood or later.
Information relating to IEQ and toxics may also be found on these topic pages:
- Landscaping and Grounds: (outdoor pesticides, lawnmowers, run-off, outdoor leaded paint )
- Building: (materials, siting)
- Procurement and Resource Management (Water-chemical disposal down drains; Material-disposal of hazardous materials)
- Transportation: (vehicle exhaust, IAQ in school buses)