As Pennsylvania students head back to school, they could face exposure to health hazards in the classroom such as poor indoor air quality, mold, radon and lead. And a new report found the Commonwealth’s school districts have been sluggish to mediate these risks in their buildings.
Published by Women for a Healthy Environment (WHE), a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that partners with schools to improve the health of classroom environments, the report highlights common environmental risks and their consequences on the health of school children.
“Pennsylvania is a unique hazard zone due to aging school infrastructure, geology, and the siting of school buildings near industrial pollution,” the report reads.
The report found that Pennsylvania school buildings are 20 years older than the national average. With the average age of a school building in the Commonwealth at 70 years old, the report notes that kids are more likely to be exposed to construction materials that have since been banned as health hazards.
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WHE’s findings also include data on testing for lead in water and paint, overall water quality, mold, air quality, use of pesticides and green cleaning supplies, anti-idling policies and the use of artificial turf fields among school districts.
The report pulled data from a representative 166 of the state’s 500 school districts for the school years 2018 to 2022 to determine compliance rates for environmental standards and compared those years to WHE’s previous evaluation issued in 2021.
From a random sample of schools across Pennsylvania, the report found the most tested environmental hazards included lead in drinking water, water quality and mold. But testing was inconsistent: some districts only tested a single building or a handful of classrooms and others tested buildings in different years, which complicates comparison.
Of the public school districts who tested:
- 94.8% found lead in drinking water
- 19% reported other water quality hazards like copper, PFAs chemicals and bacteria
- 61.5% found mold in their buildings
- 54.6% found lead in paint exceedances
The report noted that in districts where these hazards were reported, most remediation efforts were either slow or not undertaken at all:
- 29% of school districts took steps to remove mold
- 11% of school districts attempted to mitigate lead in drinking water
“The findings in this report represent a public health crisis hiding right in plain sight,” said Deborah Gentile, medical director at Community Partners in Asthma Care.
Gentile, a certified allergy and immunology physician, noted the statewide average rate of childhood asthma is approximately 14%, which is nearly double the national average of about 8%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While the causes of asthma are multifaceted, the report noted that airborne allergens like dust, smoke, mold and pollen can inflame the airways of an asthmatic child. Other triggers include particulate matter due to air pollution, extreme temperatures, respiratory infections and stress.
Another hazard highlighted by the report is radon, something only 5% of schools in the sample tested for despite most of the state residing in a zone at high risk for exposure to the gas. Naturally occurring but radioactive, radon is formed in the breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water. It can seep into buildings through cracks in the foundation. Prolonged exposure to the colorless, odorless gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States.
Of the schools that tested for radon, 3 in 4 found the gas in excess of federal safety limits. Zero schools in the report took measures to mitigate radon exposure.
“Schools are identifying these serious environmental hazards, yet [they are] consistently failing to take the necessary steps to protect our students and school personnel,” said Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, executive director of WHE.
Southwestern Pennsylvania
Unlike other regions of the state, the average rate of asthma prevalence actually decreased near Pittsburgh between school years 2016-2017, 2019-2020, and 2021-2022.
Southwestern Pennsylvania — defined in the report as a 10-county area which includes Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland counties — was the only region in the report that did not record increasing rates of asthma overall. Still, five of the 98 Southwestern Pennsylvania districts sampled did report increasing rates of asthma.
Southwestern Pennsylvania schools also reported higher rates of asthma attacks for which a rescue inhaler was used. Twelve districts used double the amount of rescue doses compared to the previous report and eight of those districts were in the southwest region.
The report found that most schools in Southwestern Pennsylvania had fallen further out of compliance with environmental testing and best practices compared to reports from previous years.
“The reasons are outside of the scope of this report, but it can be surmised that schools have competing priorities when it comes to how they spend their limited funding,” the report reads.
As much of the region is in a river valley, flood risk coupled with poor ventilation drive persistent mold in schools around Pittsburgh. The report found that although more than half of schools in southwestern Pennsylvania tested for mold, most have not documented any remediation efforts. Only one of the 26 districts advised to remediate mold issues were able to produce documents outlining those measures.
New regulations proposed
State Sen. Devlin Robinson, who represents a western portion of Allegheny County, said he found the report “extremely” concerning.
“This report shines a light on dangerous conditions of some of our schools,” he said during a press briefing Wednesday. “Our kids spend over 1,000 hours per year in school, making the health and safety of those buildings extremely important to the health and safety of our children,” he said.
Robinson has proposed measures in the Pennsylvania Senate that would require radon testing in schools and expand requirements for lead testing in drinking water. Both measures have bipartisan support.
“I hope this report is a wakeup call for the General Assembly to take action for our children, educators, and school staff to remain safe and healthy,” Robinson said.
In addition to Robinson’s legislation, WHE urges schools to adopt stricter rules around chemical cleaning products and follow state recommendations aimed at improving environmental health practices.
But the report found that schools aren’t complying with environmental hazard laws already on the books. Pennsylvania requires schools to post anti-idling signs to prevent buses and other vehicles from idling, which can release harmful pollutants into the air. But fewer than half of schools surveyed had any anti-idling signs.
“Those are laws on the books that schools should be following,” said Naccarati-Chapkis, who is also an Allegheny County Council member.
She urged parents, PTAs and school administrators to work with WHE to develop indoor air quality plans — centered on updating school HVAC systems — as well as finding funding to mitigate other issues like mold and radon. Naccarati-Chapkis said the report stressed “the urgent need for stronger regulations and policies, both at the school board level and the state level.”
