For over a week, I was at a conference on household hazardous waste in Los Angeles, California. It turns out, I am definitely not an L.A. girl. I arrived back home to Vermont, and I am relishing the chill of the oncoming autumn. The conference was put on by the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association (NAHMMA). It was excellent! They did a fabulous job--especially the discussions about hazardous products in public and private schools. Products are found throughout the schools in chemistry labs, art classrooms, and maintenance closets.
Chemistry Labs
I already knew chemicals in labs were a problem (because I'd watched a webinar by NAHMMA). But it absolutely fascinates and horrifies me that outdated and unknown chemicals found in schools can cause
fires, explosions, spills and toxic human exposure. These incidents from poorly
stored chemicals present a risk to children in addition to thousands of
dollars in cleanup costs.
These may be products that are currently in use, but also ones that are languishing behind other bottles of laboratory chemicals--waiting, just waiting for something bad to happen. Those bottles have often been there for decades.
Picric acid really intrigues me because it is sensitive to sudden movement, heat, or friction. So, if someone were to say drop a bottle of picric acid in the high school laboratory, there is potential that it could blow out the room. Here's a
YouTube video of an detonation of just 14 grams of pitric acid. Imagine if there were a jar of this in the school! (Pitric acid also intrigues me because they used to put it in
vaginal suppositories. What were they thinking?)
An
ethyl ether YouTube video shows a violent explosion of another common chemical found in schools. I guess a good chemistry laboratory may need some dangerous products to teach, but many schools overbuy or hoard dangerous products. And with teachers leaving and new teachers coming in, the toxic load can increase.
Schools may or may not realize what they have. Some schools go so far
as to do a chemical inventory and obtain a cost estimate to get rid of
these products from the school, but when they find out how expensive it
is (it could be $4,000 for just one bottle of something especially
dangerous), they leave it all where it sits. So it's back to out of
sight, out of mind--and the disposal cost is not going to go down by
pretending those chemicals are not there.
Schools have budgets like everyone and chemical disposal can be very
expensive. A "triage" might help the schools select the most dangerous
chemicals to get rid of first so they don't bust the annual budget.
King County, Washington provides a
Rehab the Lab program to help schools sort out their chemicals and keep the labs safer for kids. They also provide
lab safety videos.
Art Classrooms
Oil paints, pastels, acrylics, charcoal & graphite dust, markers and
inks, spray adhesives, and clean-up solvents are part of the artistic and sometimes toxic
potpourri in the art classroom.
Art supplies can be so dangerous that the
California and
Illinois have legislation to limit toxic art supplies in schools. They recognize that children cannot read the labels of products to see what they should be exposed to or not. Paints and other art supplies can produce some of the most eloquent and thought-provoking art, but they can also be carcinogenic or cause allergic reactions while the artist is making her beautiful creations.
Photo Credit Link
The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provides guidance in purchasing nontoxic art supplies as does the
Art and Creative Materials Institute.
King County, Washington provides great information on art supplies and selecting less toxic alternatives.
Maintenance
There are a lot of kids tramping through the school and going in and out
at recess. The cleaners tend to be more "heavy-duty" or toxic than at
home. But these cleaners do not have to be so toxic that they cause
health problems such as aggravating or even causing asthma.
For maintenance and other cleaning products, schools have resources such as the
Green Schools Initiative, Cleaning for Healthy Schools,
Green Clean Schools, and
The Environmental Working Group. There are many web sites and resources for schools to green up their act and clean with nontoxic cleaning products that are not hazardous to children's health.
Photo Credit Link
General Resources for Change
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognizes these problems and has developed the
Toolkit for Safe Chemical Management Program. You can also check out the
Green Schools Initiative.
We can keep the kids safe while providing a good--and healthy education.
Personally, I use vinegar in a homemade all-purpose cleaner made with white vinegar, liquid soap, and water (see the Recipes page of this blog). For an air freshener, I put a bowl of white vinegar on the counter. (I do this with baking soda as well.) I use vinegar as a toilet bowl cleaner by pouring straight vinegar into the toilet bowl, scrub the toilet with a brush, and let is sit until the next use of the toilet. I use simple vinegar and water to mop the linoleum kitchen floor as well as the bathroom floor. Vinegar and water can be sprayed on to windows and mirrors, then wiped off with crumpled newspaper for sparkling glass. Oh, white vinegar, how do I love thee....
