Live Healthy and Strong

Sick School Syndrome

Many of the nation’s schools have poor ventilation and significant sources of pollution inside the buildings, which can be a serious problem for children with asthma; in particular, indoor pollutants can be a problem. When a building has indoor air problems, it is known as a “sick building.” When a school is deemed sick, it means that the people inside experience health problems that have no other obvious cause and that these symptoms or problems disappear or improve when they leave the building. According to a 1995 federal government survey, half of all schools in the country were sick schools.

Diagnosis
There are no strict criteria for diagnosing sick school syndrome; health experts make a diagnosis by examining the child and assessing whether the symptoms seem related to being in school. Sick school syndrome is often wrongly blamed for several illnesses and disorders ranging from INFLUENZA to ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER. Therefore, it is important for health experts to look for other explanations for a child’s symptoms before attributing them to the school environment.

The most frequent contributing factor to sick school syndrome is poor indoor air quality, usually because of poor ventilation. Without ventilation, too much moisture leads to mold and bacteria. Buildings are more tightly sealed today than they were 50 years ago because of energy concerns, and this can result in poorer air quality indoors. In addition, synthetic building materials and furnishings and pesticides add to indoor chemical pollution.

In new buildings the combination of the tight seal and the presence of chemical materials are often at fault. With older buildings ventilation systems may have been turned off or allowed to fall into disrepair. Moisture can also contribute to the development of a sick building. If a roof leaks and carpets are damp, they can harbor bacteria, mold, and fungi that can make children sick. Housekeeping supplies such as copy machine chemicals and pesticides can add to the problem.

Symptoms
The most common symptoms of sick school syndrome are headache, fatigue, and shortness of breath, plus sinus congestion, sneezing, coughing, and nausea, as well as eye, nose, throat, and skin irritation, and dizziness. Because the symptoms of sick school syndrome are similar to those of many other illnesses, it can be difficult to pinpoint indoor air pollutants as the cause. Children with asthma are particularly susceptible to indoor pollutants.

Treatment
The best way to treat the illnesses triggered by indoor air pollutants is to fix the environmental problem. The six basic methods for getting rid of indoor air pollution are removal or relocation of the source of pollution, providing exhaust systems in rooms where there are pollutants (such as science labs or copy machine rooms), improving ventilation, using chemicals when children are not in school (such as waxing floors on the weekends), using clean air filters in ventilation systems, and making sure the school staff is familiar with the
importance of clean indoor air.