Indoor Environmental Air Quality

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Apply - or nominate a custodian - for the 2011 C.L.E.A.N. ® Awards! Deadline to apply: December 1.

The NEA believes that every child has the right to a great public school that fosters an optimal learning and working environment which is critical to the health, achievement and overall well being of our nations children and the educators that serve them. Given students and staff enter school buildings and remain there a good portion of the day this environment should be one that is safe and healthy with optimal indoor environmental quality (IEQ). 

According to the US EPA, twenty percent of the U.S. population, nearly 55 million people, spend their days in our elementary and secondary schools. Further studies show that 1 in 5 of our nation's 110,000 schools reported unsatisfactory indoor air quality, and 1 in 4 schools reported ventilation -- which impacts indoor air quality -- as unsatisfactory.

Poor IEQ adversely affects the health of building occupants, results in increased absenteeism, and directly impacts staff performance and student achievement.

NEA HIN has addressed the issue of poor IEQ for over a decade through its IEQ in Schools program. This program aims to educate NEA members, state affiliate staff on how to identify, prevent and resolve many IEQ issues through education, training and resource development. NEA HIN is proud to be a cooperative partner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and co-sponsor of their Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools (IAQ TfS) program which provides common sense guidance on a variety of school IEQ issues including how to implement an IEQ management plan like IAQ TfS.