Healthy School Environments
Region 5: Partnering with Local Companies to Improve Management of Chemicals in Schools
EPA Region 5 began the “Collar Counties” Community Environmental Health Initiative in 2011 to improve environmental health in four Illinois counties: Kane County, Kankakee County, Will County and Lake County. This geographic area consists of over 2.5 million people, and contains the second and third largest cities in Illinois. In 2010, R3 Environmental, Inc., an environmental management company in the Chicago area, signed a partnership agreement with EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response to help create healthier school environments by assisting a school to improve their chemicals management. In 2011, R3 Environmental and Region 5 conducted safe chemicals management training for science teachers from Elgin High School, a Kane County school with 2,500 students, 74% of which are low income. The training taught teachers about laboratory safety, principles of safe chemicals management, developing a chemical hygiene plan and green chemistry. The participants also learned about “micro-scale chemistry,” which utilizes scaled-down experiments to teach chemical principles, thus using less hazardous chemicals. The training also introduced teachers to Children’s Environmental Health and to EPA’s school environmental health programs, such as IAQ Tools for Schools, Integrated Pest Management and the Healthy School Environments Assessment. After the training, EPA Region 5 and R3 Environmental helped Elgin High School to assess their chemical inventories and identify approximately 2,500 lbs. of inappropriate, outdated, unknown and unnecessary chemicals, including 30 lbs of mercury. R3 Environmental funded the disposal of the chemicals, saving the school over $13,000. Region 5 worked with Elgin High School to develop a chemical management program which the school subsequently implemented. EPA Region 5 also worked with Elgin HS to put more focus on children’s environmental health in their environmental sciences curriculum.
After their work at Elgin High School, R3 Environmental encouraged another Chicago-area company, EMCO Chemical Distributors, Inc. to contribute to the “Collar Counties” Community Environmental Health Initiative. EMCO contributed $3,000 to help Waukegan High School in Lake County, IL, dispose of 2,700 lbs. of hazardous chemicals, including 63 lbs. of mercury. EPA Region 5 conducted safe chemicals management training for the science department, and helped the school to develop and implement a chemicals management plan which will help reduce unnecessary chemical exposure to students. EPA Region 5 also helped Waukegan High School plan an event for the U.S. Green Building Council’s Green Apple Day of Service, in which students created brochures on safe chemical management in the home, and shared them with families, in both English and Spanish, during the school’s homecoming week. Waukegan High School serves about 4400 students, of which 95% are minority, and 66% are low income.
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