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Tools for Schools

Poor indoor air quality is a great concern today. It contributes to the rising number of asthma and allergies in our society. The energy crisis in the 1970's forced upon the building community with stringent laws to build tighter buildings to prevent energy loss — the resultant reduced air circulation causes buildup of gases, chemicals, and moisture from our daily activities that continue to remain around us since they have no way to escape... Read more at www.epa.gov/iaq.

Our program

Did you know that a lot of allergies, asthma, headaches, nausea and many other illnesses are related to poor Indoor Air Quality? Surprising but true!! Poor Indoor Air Quality should not be neglected as it is a big concern today that attributes to increased student absenteeism and as a result, millions of school days lost in a year.

Breathe California offers the Indoor Air Quality -Tools for Schools program for elementary, middle and high schools. This program is FREE for schools and will enable each school to achieve the best indoor air possible in any individual building. Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Tools for Schools (TFS) consists of an Action Kit that helps identify any indoor air quality problems and eliminates future ones.

Good Indoor Air Quality contributes to a favorable learning environment for students, productivity for teachers and staff, and a sense of well being for all school occupants. These combine to assist a school in its core mission — educating children.

IAQ Tools for Schools is designed to give schools the information and skills they need to manage air quality in a low-cost, practical manner.

IAQ Tools for Schools helps schools prevent potential problems and efficiently manage them should they occur. This program can.

  1. Save your school money by preventing IAQ problems from developing into expensive repairs.
  2. Help prevent bad publicity and tensions between schools, parents and the community.
  3. Decrease the potential for short and long term health problems for students and staff.
  4. Reduce student and teacher absenteeism and improve student-learning environment.

Breathe California has been providing schools in our counties the opportunity to take part in our IAQ-TFS campaign. The program has reached over 216 schools in the Santa Clara County. Over 50 schools have completed the walk through and we have formed Indoor Air Quality Teams in 3 school districts so far. An Indoor Air Quality team consists of stakeholders from the school or the school district such as maintenance personnel, teachers, parent volunteers, the school nurse, the custodian, food service personnel, etc. as they know best their school environment. The team is trained by Breathe California staff to carry the program further and maintain a sustainable and healthy environment.
What we are offering:

  1. In-Service education to train staff how to identify IAQ problems and use simple (free) steps to remedy.
  2. A complete walkthrough of school sites. We have trained IAQ experts that will conduct assessments. The walkthrough is NOT an inspection and the results are confidential. Walkthroughs have identified easily remedied situations that the school can undertake at low costs. The Tools for Schools Program brings about a high level of awareness among school occupants and gives them the background to identify indoor environmental triggers that could be contributing to poor air quality in classrooms. Steps taken to address these problems at their onset can prevent them from assuming grave dimensions and huge repairs for the school districts.
  3. A simple and easy to understand report with solutions for addressing the potential problems perceived.
  4. Assistance in forming action plans to remedy the problems.
    The IAQ-TFS has been put together with the coordination and cooperation of organizations such as the American Lung Association, the Environmental Protection Agency, American Federation of Teachers, the Association of School Business Officials International, the Council for American Private Education, the National Education Association and the National Congress of Parents and Teachers.


For more information on the program or to receive this free program, contact Joseph at (408) 998-5865 or joseph@lungsrus.org

One of our shining examples: The Mount Pleasant School District has taken a very proactive role in the implementation of the Indoor Air Quality - Tools for Schools Program. All 5 schools in this district have done the walkthroughs and received the analysis results. Mr. Vince Sunseri, Chief of Maintenance and Operations, who is the team leader for the district has lent active support in upholding this program.