Environmental Health
Environmental Health
Indoor Air Quality Stats and Facts
1. An EPA economic analysis of repairs performed at an elementary school showed that if $370 per year over 22 years (a total of $8,140) had been spent on preventive maintenance, $1.5 million in repairs could have been avoided.
EPA Indoor Environments Division, Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools: Actions to Improve IAQ (September 1999)
2. Twenty percent of the U.S. population, nearly 55 million people, spend their days in elementary and secondary schools.
EPA Indoor Environments Division, Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools: Actions to Improve IAQ (September 1999)
3. One-half of our nation’s 115,000 schools have problems linked to indoor air quality.
EPA Indoor Environments Division, IAQ Tools for Schools: Actions to Improve IAQ
(September 1999)
4. Indoor levels of air pollutants can be 2-5 times higher, and occasionally 100 times higher, than outdoor levels.
EPA Indoor Environments Division, Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools: Actions to Improve IAQ (September 1999)
5. Indoor air pollution consistently ranks among the top five environmental risks to public health.
EPA Indoor Environments Division, Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools: Actions to Improve IAQ (September 1999)
6. Poor indoor air quality can cause illness-requiring absence from school, and can cause acute health symptoms that decrease performance while at school.
EPA Indoor Environments Division, Indoor Air Quality and Student Performance (August 2000)
7. Indoor air quality can reduce a person’s ability to perform specific mental tasks requiring concentration, calculation, or memory.
EPA Indoor Environments Division, Indoor Air Quality and Student Performance (August 2000)
1. Approximately five million children under age 18 in the United States are diagnosed with asthma.
American Thoracic Society Update: Future directions for research on diseases of the lung. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (1998) 158:320-334
2. Nearly one in 13 school-aged children has asthma.
National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Information Survey, 1999
3. Over 10 million school days are missed each year by school children experiencing asthma-related problems.
United States. National Institutes of Health National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Asthma: A Concern for Minority Populations. Jan. 1997
4. Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood.
National Institutes of Health National Heart Lung Blood Institute. Guidelines for the Diagnosisand Management of Asthma.
5. Asthma in children has increased significantly in both numbers and severity over the past 15 years.
National Institutes of Health National Heart Lung Blood Institute. Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma.
6. The number of children under age 18 who have asthma has increased every year since 1985. In fact asthma is now at epidemic proportions worldwide, especially among school-aged children.
United States. Centers for Disease Control. Forecasted State-Specific estimates of Self-Reported Asthma Prevalence-1998 Morbidity and Mortality (Dec 4, 1998) 47:1022-1025.47:1022-1025.
7. Asthma is the leading cause of hospitalizations among children.
United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vital and Health Statistics. National Hospital Discharge Survey: Annual Summary, 1993. (Aug. 1995) DHHS Publication No. PHS 95-1782.
8. Six to eight percent of children with asthma have food allergies that can trigger asthma symptoms.
Food Allergy News, a publication of the Food Allergy Network, Volume 6, Number 1, October-November 1996, Update on Food Allergies and Asthma, by Hugh A. Sampson, M.D.
9. Children with asthma make more than 2.7 million physician visits annually.
American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology Initiatives. Update on Pediatric Asthma: Promoting Best Practice.
10. Children and teens whose nighttime sleep is disrupted by asthma symptoms can have greater difficulty with schoolwork.
www.asthmaandschools.org
11. Missed sleep due to nighttime asthma can cause children to have poor recall memory, lack of concentration and mood swings.
www.asthmaandschools.org
12. Some medications have side effects that may interfere with a student’s ability to concentrate or participate in school activities.
www.asthmaandschools.org
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