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Reading, Writing and Risk: In the News


Portable Classrooms -- News Coverage

Back to Main Portables Page

On May 27, 1999 EWG released Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution Inside California's Portable Classrooms. The study found that 2 million California children attend school in portable classrooms that may be a significant source of exposure to airborne toxins, including formaldehyde and other cancer-causing chemicals.

Reading, Writing and Risk received nationwide attention and prompted editorials in many of the major California papers calling on the state to take action to protect school children from indoor air quality hazards. Below is a sampling of the portables related news coverage.

Bold denotes editorial or front page story.

The San Francisco Chronicle
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OCTOBER 5, 1999, TUESDAY, FINAL EDITION

SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A25; OPEN FORUM

LENGTH: 720 words

HEADLINE: Health Risks of Classrooms

BYLINE: Caroline Grannan, Ann Melamed

BODY:

OUR CHILDREN go to a San Francisco public school where they're absorbing their multiplication tables, a love of reading and an understanding of how plants grow.

They may also be absorbing some less beneficial stuff: formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, arsenic and toxic molds.

That's because they're among more than 2 million California schoolchildren who learn their ABCs in portable classrooms. Some environmental health experts worry that those temporary structures, which clutter schoolyards nationwide and now make up one-third of California's classrooms, harbor chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects, brain and nerve damage, nausea, nosebleeds, asthma and other illnesses.

One of our kids sits in a first-grade portable classroom a few yards from busy Lake Merced Boulevard, which sends exhaust fumes and a constant din of traffic noise through flimsy walls into the classroom. Turning on the ventilation system just increases the noise.

Portables are strewn across post-Proposition 13 school playgrounds these days -- there are more than 86,500 of them across the state, according to the Environmental Working Group. "Many California schools now look like migrant camps -- row after row of drab wooden boxes of uncertain safety," writes political journalist Peter Schrag in "Paradise Lost: California's Experience, America's Future."

As author Jonathan Kozol points out, sticking students into temporary shacks sends a message about where kids and education stand on the priority list: "It reminds children that their society doesn't think of them very highly," Kozol writes in "Illiterate America."

But it's the structures' safety that worries parents most. "Tighter construction, fewer windows and inadequate ventilation in portables can lead to a greater buildup of toxic chemicals (than in conventional buildings)," notes a report by the Environmental Working Group. "Some portables can expose children to toxic chemicals at levels that pose an unacceptable risk of their developing cancer or other serious illness."

In an extreme case last May, an out break of illnesses was linked to portables at Rio Vista Elementary in Canyon Country, near Los Angeles. A 10-year-old was diagnosed with chemically induced immune system dysfunction, and one classmate's headaches and stomachaches were found to be the result of a poisonous mold growing on her lungs. High levels of arsenic, formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals were found in the blood of six children and a teacher. (The teacher has some protection under workplace safety laws. The children don't.)

Not that traditional classrooms are so much better. Many are in deteriorating old buildings where hazards like lead paint and asbestos are common. One survey ranked California dead last among all states in school environmental quality.

Maintenance cuts add to the problem. In 1975, with 15 fewer schools than today and no portables, the San Francisco Unified School District employed 600 custodians, a district source tells us. Now only 238 custodians maintain all the schools, including 200 portables. This translates into hasty housekeeping, water intrusion, malfunctioning ventilation systems and deferred maintenance.

Gov. Gray Davis has on his desk a bill that would begin to address portable-classroom safety. AB 1207, passed by the state Senate and Assembly and awaiting the governor's signature, will require the state to study problems with portable-classroom air quality and look for solutions. It will also provide for school personnel to be trained in environmental health standards -- so teachers will know to turn on the ventilation systems -- and require better notification of pesticide spraying around schools.

The bill is only a start. But we hope it signals a new commitment to educating our kids in a safe and healthy setting.

--------------------------

TO LEARN MORE

-- For information on Tools for Schools, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program on making schools healthier, call (415) 744-1047.

-- For information on school environmental health, e-mail Ann Melamed at ceh@cehca.org.

Ann Melamed, a nurse and mother of three, is a project manager at Oakland's Center for Environmental Health. Caroline Grannan is a writer, mother of two and PTA board member at a San Francisco school.

GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC, DEAN ROHRER / SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

LOAD-DATE: October 5, 1999

Copyright 1999 Stern Publishing, Inc.
OC Weekly
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August 27, 1999, Friday

SECTION: The County; Pg. 10

LENGTH: 1429 words

HEADLINE: MONSTER IN A BOX

BYLINE: Tim Meltreger

BODY:

For more than 50,000 Orange County students in portable classrooms, it might just be that school actually is making them sick. According to a report released in May by the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group (EWG), portables--those boxy, prefabricated, trailer-looking "temporary" classrooms employed by school districts to alleviate overcrowding and meet class-size-reduction mandates--present potentially serious health risks to more than 2 million students statewide.

The report, Reading, Writing and Risk: Indoor Air Pollution Inside California's portable Classrooms, is based on the EWG's review of scientific literature, anecdotal records and indoor air-quality tests. It asserts that harmful airborne chemicals such as formaldehyde and cancer-causing benzene have been measured in elevated levels inside portables. The toxins are said to be emitted by materials used in the construction of the buildings. The report concludes that inadequate ventilation also makes portables prone to hazardous accumulations of carbon dioxide as well as biological contaminants such as viruses, bacteria and toxic mold.

Since a 1991 account in The Orange County Register, in which a teacher and several children experienced nausea and headaches in a portable classroom at a San Clemente elementary school, similar incidents have been reported elsewhere in Orange County as well as in Fontana, Corona, Riverside, Cupertino, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Ventura and Sacramento County. Most recently, in the San Fernando Valley, a number of students and teachers reportedly fell ill after attending class in a portable at Rio Vista Elementary School in Saugus. Subsequent examinations of at least six of the students and one teacher by a pediatrician and a toxicologist revealed high levels of residue from formaldehyde, arsenic and other pollutants, as well as the presence of a toxic mold known as stachybotrys. One Rio Vista student, 10-year-old Aaron Scott, was diagnosed with an immune-system dysfunction.

"I have no doubt whatsoever that Aaron was poisoned by his classroom," his mother said at a press conference at the school. "There is no other explanation."

Local experts say OC classrooms aren't immune. According to Huntington Beach industrial hygienist Patrick Moffet, the great majority of portable classrooms in use statewide are essentially identical in composition. "A lot of the buildings that are modular have no cross-ventilation and no structural ventilation, and there's standing water a lot of times from rain, resulting in a high concentration of mold spores inside the building," he said.

Santa Ana attorney Edward Cross, who has worked extensively on indoor-air-quality cases in schools, said that environmental problems in schools are often due to the hassles that face all school districts. "Schools have bad air quality because they're poorly maintained," he said. "The maintenance is strangled by government bureaucracy, low budgets, and a lack of appreciation for the problem."

The EWG report levels considerable criticism at the state, which knew about the potential hazards of portable classrooms even in 1996. That was the year Pete Wilson's wildly popular Class Size Reduction Act had California school districts filling portables as quickly as maintenance crews could bolt them together. Indeed, the state Department of Health Services' own report on portables, Indoor Environmental Quality in California Schools: Critical Needs, was completed almost a year ago but has yet to be officially released. The draft report was made available after a Public Records Act request by the California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG). In it, the state warns that portable classrooms "have endemic indoor environmental quality problems" but that "there is no program to systematically inspect portable classrooms."

The state still has no date for releasing its study. One DHS official, speaking optimistically, said, "With any speed and grace, we'll have it to the governor's office within a month."

"The governor has been micromanaging everything," said Jonathan Kaplan, toxics program director at CalPIRG. "It's been a real problem."

Self-proclaimed "education governor" Gray Davis may be unable to skirt the issue much longer. Assemblyman Kevin Shelley's (D-San Francisco) Healthy Schools Act of 1999 (AB 1207) would regulate the use of pesticides near schools, monitor lead and radon, and establish guidelines for indoor air quality. Earlier this month, the measure was sent to the Senate floor, where it risks being tabled if it's not passed before the summer legislative session closes on Sept. 10--a very real possibility.

Meanwhile, ignorance will remain bliss for California school districts, especially in growing areas like Orange County, where increasing enrollment numbers are pushing districts to buy and use more portables. Orange County's four biggest school districts--Santa Ana, Capistrano, Saddleback Valley and Garden Grove--have no fewer than 2,000 portables in use, with hundreds more on campuses in OC's 24 smaller districts.

Maintenance officials with the Big Four insist they're working to ensure proper air circulation in portables. But several teachers contacted by the Weekly conceded that they often turn off the air-conditioning systems in their portables and close the doors and windows in order to reduce outside noise. And according to one Garden Grove school employee, routine maintenance--such as the quarterly replacement of air filters in the portables' ventilation units--is often behind schedule.

portable manufacturers, most of them located in California, fiercely deny any connection between their classrooms and emerging health concerns. In a press release, Bill Meehleis of Meehleis Modular Buildings in Lodi called the EWG report "exaggerated and misleading" and claimed that the incident in Saugus has been thoroughly discredited.

Michael Rhodes, president of Modtech in Riverside County, said: "Modtech's classrooms are designed, engineered and manufactured in accordance with structural and safety regulations adopted by the California Department of General Services' State Architect Division. This includes indoor air-quality standards."

But Louis Nastro, a spokesman at the department in question, disagreed. "The gentleman's claim that we have something to do with indoor air quality is incorrect," he said. "Indoor air quality is not something that our plan reviewers inspect for."

Portable manufacturers have been making big money ever since Wilson mandated class-size reduction. Modtech's annual earnings, according to a 1996 report in The Sacramento Business Journal, have increased nearly 1,000 percent since 1996 to a staggering $127.6 million in 1998.

EWG's Bill Walker was on hand for a special Beverly Hills school-board meeting in late July, where parents raised concerns about recent tests that revealed high levels of formaldehyde in several portables. Walker emphasized that the most important step a community can take is the simplest one: don't panic. There is no question, he said, that students are at risk in portable classrooms, but he appealed to parents to be realistic. "There is cause for concern, but above all, there is the need for more information," he said. "The bottom line is that the risk for most people in most classrooms is very low. What we calculated is that we might see a lifetime cancer risk doubling or tripling. The lifetime cancer risk is measured under the U.S. Clean Air Act, and the acceptable cancer risk is one in a million. So, if we have 2.5 million kids in portables in California, we're talking about a couple of extra cases of cancer. The big concerns, undoubtedly, are the nosebleeds, the nausea, the asthma, the hay fever and the other sorts of things that affect people at a very immediate level."

Further common-sense steps can reduce the risks of portables: school districts need to promote awareness among employees, parents need to demand that districts provide records of routine maintenance, and teachers need to ensure that rooms are ventilated properly. Long-term fixes, Walker said, should begin with an appeal to the state to develop an acceptable standard to reduce or eliminate toxic chemicals in the construction of portables. "We know that hospitals, nursing homes and even sometimes art galleries are using materials that are much lower in the emissions of these toxic chemicals," Walker said. "Surely our children are worth it as well, even if it is more expensive."

GRAPHIC: Photo:Myles Robinson

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: August 27, 1999

Copyright 1999 Tower Media, Inc.
The Daily News of Los Angeles
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August 3, 1999, Tuesday, AV EDITION

SECTION: NEWS, Pg. AV1

LENGTH: 583 words

HEADLINE: AREA SCHOOLS GET TESTED FOR MOLD, TOXINS

BYLINE: John Sanders and Greg Botonis Staff Writers

DATELINE: LANCASTER

BODY:

Recent outbreaks of illnesses due to molds or chemicals in Saugus and Acton schools have prompted Lancaster School District officials to test classrooms and administrative buildings as a precaution.

Friday, due to concerns from a district administrator and a parent, the district tested two buildings at Nancy Cory and Linda Verde elementary schools.

Tonight, the school board will be asked to approve testing buildings on other campuses.

''We've been on top of this for years, so our level of concern is not substantial because we have over the years done everything required of us to keep things the way they're supposed to be,'' said Ned McNabb, assistant superintendent of business services. ''But in order to respond to anyone's concerns we're going to go ahead and do an air quality assessment of selected buildings.''

The school board will meet at 7:30 p.m. today at the district office, 44711 Cedar Ave.

Last month, parents of pupils at Meadowlark Elementary School told Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District trustees that their children showed signs of having been exposed to the toxic mold stachybotrys or to chemicals including formaldehyde and inorganic arsenic.

Formaldehyde and arsenic are commonly used in materials to build portable classrooms. Stachybotrys, which grows on water-saturated debris, has been found in portable classrooms in California and Canada.

In Santa Clarita, similar diagnoses earlier this year prompted an investigation by the state Department of Health Services and the Environmental Protection Agency to determine whether chemicals and molds found in the portables are indeed causing symptoms among several children and three teachers.

So far, environmental tests in the Santa Clarita classrooms have proved negative for any toxins.

Results from last week's tests in Lancaster have not yet been received, McNabb said Monday.

McNabb said the initial tests were conducted after an administrator at Nancy Cory Elementary expressed concern that her allergies might be affected and a Linda Verde parent asked for tests at that school.

Lancaster officials are less concerned about chemical toxins than they are about mold, which can grow in water that collects under a portable classroom.

''We're doing an assessment of all of our classrooms where there's a likelihood of water,'' McNabb said. ''We're doing a visual assessment, an irrigation assessment and a drainage assessment just as a precaution. We've already been doing that, that's not a new thing, but we're going to go back and redo it, I think, to give people more confidence.''

Lancaster Teachers Association President Geri Hazelton said no teachers have complained to her about mold or toxins.

''I think that it's very important (to test),'' Hazelton said. ''I think if there are people concerned and parents concerned and teachers are concerned, then I think that, yes, they should put monitors in the classrooms where problems have surfaced. That will either clear it up or they'll know what to do.''

A state released in May - titled ''Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution Inside California's portable Classrooms'' - warned of the possible ''gassing off'' of materials used in building the portables.

Toxic compounds that gather in portables can, at low levels, cause eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches and dizziness, according to the report, which was released by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, based in Washington, D.C.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: August 4, 1999

Copyright 1999 Tower Media, Inc.
The Daily News of Los Angeles
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July 29, 1999, Thursday, AV EDITION

SECTION: NEWS, Pg. AV1

LENGTH: 718 words

HEADLINE: SCHOOL TOXINS FEARED; SCORES OF PUPILS SHOW SYMPTOMS OF EXPOSURE

BYLINE: Greg Botonis Staff Writer

DATELINE: ACTON

BODY:

Links between chronic illnesses among schoolchildren and their portable classrooms that have been reported in other regions have prompted fears at Meadowlark Elementary School.

As many as 70 children there are experiencing symptoms similar to those of youngsters in Santa Clarita who have tested positive for the toxic mold stachybotrys or for chemicals including formaldehyde and inorganic arsenic in their blood. Those chemicals are commonly used in materials used to build portable classrooms.

Medical tests on one Meadowlark child showed signs of stachybotrys mold in his blood as well as formic acid from formaldehyde, the solvent Phenol and arsenic. Stachybotrys, which grows in water-saturated debris, has been found in portables in California and Canada.

''He came home from his first day of school with a nosebleed,'' Barbie Wein said of her son, who is on summer break after finishing first grade in a portable at Meadowlark.

''He started to have headaches and he became much more aggressive. He was so mellow and laid back (before). We didn't see a real difference in it clearing up until school let out. Symptomatically, he's 90 percent cured.''

Dr. Gary Ordog, who is caring for Wein's son, put the boy on an intense regimen of antioxidants and told him to spend time each day in a sauna to help him sweat out the toxins.

Ordog, the head of toxicology at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, also has seen patients from the Santa Clarita area schools and others from the Acton area.

Ordog has said in previous interviews that the mold can harm the neurological system, and cause headaches and nerve and memory problems. It also can affect the immune system, alter the chemicals in the blood and damage the hormone system, muscles, joints and lungs.

The stachybotrys mold grows in black patches when leaf debris, paper or wood products remain wet for a long period of time; it isn't harmful until it dries and the spores become airborne. Any length of exposure could cause varying degrees of symptoms in children or adults.

In Santa Clarita, similar diagnoses have prompted an investigation by the state Department of Health Services and the Environmental Protection Agency to determine whether chemicals and molds found in the portables are indeed causing symptoms among several children and three teachers. So far, environmental tests in target classrooms have proved negative for any toxins.

Their symptoms include headaches, nosebleeds, lethargy and upper-respiratory distress. Tests of blood and urine specimens have shown unexpectedly high levels of chemicals.

''This is a highly toxic mold and it can affect any area of the body,'' Ordog said. ''And with any kind of prolonged exposure you can see a wide range of symptoms.''

The Acton parents brought their concerns before the school board during a meeting last week at which board members discussed possible action.

''It's a new issue and there is little information about it,'' said board President James Dulac. ''We don't have an exact course of action as of yet because we are just becoming aware of the problem. I think we are all going to learn on this together.

''We have to educate ourselves before we can make informed decisions,'' Dulac said.

County and state officials have not been notified of the possible problems at Meadowlark.

A report released in May - titled ''Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution Inside California's portable Classrooms'' - warned of the possible ''gassing off'' of materials used in building the portables that could cause the mold to become airborne and the chemicals to be released into the air.

According to the report, more than one-third of California children who attend schools in portable classrooms potentially face an unacceptable risk of exposure to cancer-causing toxics in the air. It also said more than 2 million California schoolchildren were housed in 86,500 of the bungalows.

Toxic compounds that gather in portables can, at low levels, cause eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches and dizziness, according to the report. Long-term exposure can cause cancer ''and are of particular concern when children are exposed,'' according to the report, compiled by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, based in Washington, D.C.

NOTES:
Also ran in SAC edition, p. 3

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: July 30, 1999

Copyright 1999 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
The San Francisco Chronicle
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JUNE 17, 1999, THURSDAY, FINAL EDITION

SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A26; EDITORIALS

LENGTH: 203 words

HEADLINE: Detoxifying Classrooms

BODY:

A BILL by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley is a modest but necessary attempt to assure a healthy classroom environment for California's schoolchildren.

It should go without saying that when parents send their kids to school, they should not have to worry about whether the building is toxic.

But a couple of new reports raise the specter -- without actually saying that children are getting sick from school buildings -- that the portable classrooms increasingly in favor in an era of class-size reduction and limited space can emit noxious fumes.

Those fumes reportedly disappear over time, but sometimes the students are put in classrooms before the offending gases have been released. And if a building is not properly ventilated, the children can suffer.

The first priority should be to find environmentally clean classrooms. The bill by Shelley, a San Francisco Democrat, would direct the state to assess school buildings. The measure also would provide training to school officials to ensure proper ventilation and optimum indoor air quality.

As Shelley says, at the moment there are more questions about indoor air quality in schools than answers. His bill would help answer those crucial questions.

LOAD-DATE: June 17, 1999

Copyright 1999 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.
Sacramento Bee
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June 16, 1999, METRO FINAL

SECTION: EDITORIALS; Pg. B8

LENGTH: 399 words

HEADLINE: TOXIC PORTABLES?

BODY:

An environmental group has dubbed California's burgeoning number of portable school classrooms "glue boxes," and while the label surely is designed to stir worries about students being forced to sniff noxious fumes in school, it is difficult to dismiss as mere hype. A state-commissioned panel of scientists, school officials and environmental health specialists has raised similar concerns -- albeit in slightly less alarmist language -- that have been left unaddressed in the 10 months since it issued its troubling findings.

The "glue box" report, issued by the Environmental Working Group, contends that volatile organic compounds used in construction materials of portable classrooms -- formaldehyde, benzene and toluene -- are being breathed by children and their teachers in poorly ventilated portables statewide. The state's report suggests that the haste with which many of the newest portables were purchased and installed did not allow enough time to "off-gas" (or release into the air) some of those hazardous chemicals. Instead, that's often taking place while students and teachers are inside the classrooms, frequently with the windows closed.

The number of portables has grown dramatically since 1997, when California reduced class sizes in the primary grades and created a huge new demand for classroom space. Today, more than 2 million students spend some part of their school day inside an estimated 85,000 portable classrooms.

The state's report looks beyond portables to include concerns about the potential ill health effects of mold, decay and poor ventilation in thousands of neglected permanent classrooms. The report makes a strong case for a statewide effort to train school staffs about how to properly maintain and ventilate facilities -- portable and permanent -- to minimize student and teacher exposure to chemicals. It also calls for a study of the kinds of materials being used in classroom construction.

While the Davis administration has yet to take action, Assemblyman Kevin Shelley has introduced a bill, AB 1207, that would mandate the training recommended by the state's report. The bill would also direct school districts to use the least toxic pest control methods available and limit their use of carcinogenic pesticides on school grounds. The Assembly has approved the bill, and the Senate and governor would do well to follow suit.

GRAPHIC: Scott + Newsart

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: June 17, 1999

Copyright 1999 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.
The Fresno Bee
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June 15, 1999 Tuesday, HOME EDITION

SECTION: METRO, Pg. B6, EDITORIALS

LENGTH: 351 words

HEADLINE: Toxic portables;
State needs to address school air quality concerns.

BODY:

An environmental group has dubbed California's burgeoning number of portable school classrooms "glue boxes," and while the label surely is designed to stir worries about students being forced to sniff noxious fumes in school, it is difficult to dismiss as mere hype. A state-commissioned panel of scientists, school officials and environmental health specialists has raised similar concerns that have been left unaddressed in the 10 months since it issued its troubling findings.

The "glue box" report, issued by the Environmental Working Group, contends that volatile organic compounds used in construction materials of portable classrooms -- formaldehyde, benzene and toluene -- are being breathed by children and their teachers in poorly ventilated portables statewide.

The state's report suggests that the haste with which many of the newest portables were purchased and installed did not allow enough time to "off-gas" (or release into the air) some of those hazardous chemicals.

The number of portables has grown dramatically since 1997, when California reduced class sizes in the primary grades and created a huge new demand for classroom space. Today, more than 2 million students spend some part of their school day inside an estimated 85,000 portable classrooms.

The state's report looks beyond portables to include concerns about the potential ill health effects of mold, decay and poor ventilation in thousands of neglected permanent classrooms. The report makes a strong case for a statewide effort to train school staffs about how to properly maintain and ventilate facilities to minimize student and teacher exposure to chemicals.

While the Davis administration has yet to take action, Assemblyman Kevin Shelley has introduced a bill, AB 1207, that would mandate the training recommended by the state's report. The bill would also direct school districts to use the least-toxic pest control methods available and limit their use of carcinogenic pesticides on school grounds. The Assembly has approved the bill, and the Senate and governor would do well to follow suit.

LOAD-DATE: June 16, 1999

Copyright 1999 Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles Times
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June 8, 1999, Tuesday, Home Edition

SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 6; Letters Desk

LENGTH: 152 words

HEADLINE: AIR IN portables

BODY:

* After reading "Study Warns of Possible Cancer Risk in Schools" (May 28), I downloaded the 30-page study titled "Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution Inside California's portable Classrooms" (http://www.ewg.org) released May 27 by the Environmental Working Group.

Besides revealing that the 2 million kids statewide are probably being exposed to harmful airborne chemicals in portables, it also revealed that last year the state Department of Health Services wrote a report that warned of air quality problems in portable classrooms but that this report was held back by the Wilson administration for the incoming administration of Gov. Gray Davis. To date, this report remains unreleased.

Since when does the change of administration matter when the health of our schoolchildren might be at risk? The public needs to pressure Sacramento for the report's release.

PAMELA NAGLER

Claremont

LANGUAGE: English

LOAD-DATE: June 8, 1999

Copyright 1999 Information Access Company,
a Thomson Corporation Company;
IAC (SM) Newsletter Database (TM)
Copyright 1999 CRC Press, Inc.
Toxic Chemical News
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June 3, 1999

SECTION: No. 32, Vol. 27; Pg. NA ; 0146-0501

IAC-ACC-NO: 54827181

LENGTH: 566 words

HEADLINE: BRIEFS.

AUTHOR-ABSTRACT:
THIS IS THE FULL TEXT: COPYRIGHT 1999 CRC Press, Inc. Subscription: $ 957 per year as of 1/97. Published weekly. Contact Food Chemical News, Inc., 1101 Pennsylvania Ave. S.E., Washington D.C. 20003. Phone 202-544-1980. Fax 202-546-3890.

BODY:

Two million California students who attend school in portable classrooms may face a tripled lifetime risk of developing cancer, according to a report released May 26 by the Environmental Working Group. The report Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution Inside Californias portable Classrooms found as much as 2,900 micrograms of VOCs such as formaldehyde, benzene and toluene per cubic meter of air in various portable classrooms. These manufactured buildings tend to have ventilation problems because of tighter construction and their increased use of glue-bonded chipboard, plastic, synthetic carpeting, and other modern building materials. An estimated 86,500 portable classrooms are in use throughout California because of class-size reduction mandates, the report said. We should not be sending our children to school in buildings that may make them sick, said Bill Walker, California director of EWG. Better ventilation will improve the air quality in portable classrooms, but they still emit airborne toxic chemicals that can harm students and teachers health. The state should either provide schools with the money they need to build permanent classrooms, or require that the makers of portable classrooms reduce their use of toxic construction materials. Assembly Majority Leader Kevin Shelley of San Francisco recently introduced the Healthy Schools Act (AB 1270), which would direct the state to study air quality in portable classrooms and provide schools with proper ventilation training.

Hundreds of large facilities in five major industries are threatening public health by their abysmal record of compliance with the Clean Air Act, according to an Environmental Working Group analysis of EPAs recently released enforcement records. EWG found that more than 39% of all major U.S. facilities in auto assembly, iron and steel, petroleum refining, pulp manufacturing, and the metal smelting and refining industries violated the federal clean air law between January 1997 and December 1998. On the average, most of these facilities violated the law four out of eight quarters during the two-year period analyzed. Furthermore, only about one-third, or 36%, of the 227 violating facilities have been fined by EPA or state environmental regulators, EWG said, adding that any fines levied were usually too small to have any deterrent effect. The average fines for a significant violator of the Clean Air Act for the past two years was $ 318,290. EWG notes the average net earnings of the corporations that owned these facilities in 1998 were $ 24.2 billion.

Certain flammable hydrocarbon fuels would be exempted from Risk Management Program (RMP) requirements under the Clean Air Act, under an EPA proposal issued last week. Such fuels include propane, ethane and methane stored in quantities of less than 67,000 pounds in process. Industries covered include distributors and users of natural and liquefied natural gas, utilities and exotic fuel users.

EPA is extending its review of phosphide fumigants because of the numerous comments it received on the proposed use restrictions. The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) cites two key complaints: the proposed 500-foot buffer around fumigation would be impractical; it would be difficult to find affordable instruments to measure the atmosphere for compliance with the 10-fold tightening of the exposure limit.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

IAC-CREATE-DATE: June 10, 1999

LOAD-DATE: June 11, 1999

Copyright 1999 The Press Enterprise Co.
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE (RIVERSIDE, CA.)
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May 30, 1999, Sunday , ALL ZONES

SECTION: EDITORIAL; Pg. A18

LENGTH: 1048 words

HEADLINE: EDITORIALS

BYLINE: The Press-Enterprise

BODY:

Portable classrooms, stale air

With California committed to reducing class size and with limited
funds available for construction of new schools, districts are
likely to see more portable classrooms. Such bungalows, as they are
sometimes called, are not the best environment for learning, and now
it appears they may not be the best environment, period.

The nonprofit Environmental Working Group has found that
classroom air in the portables often contains a mix of pollutants,
which can lead to temporary illnesses or to cancer.

While no such serious illnesses have been attributed to pollution
in the portables, six children in one elementary school were
diagnosed with high levels of formaldehyde, arsenic and
cancer-causing benzene in their blood, and children and teachers,
including some in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, have
complained of chronic conditions.

Nothing in the group's report should cause alarm. The report
isn't so valuable for what it precisely tells us about the state of
air in the classroom, but for what it tells us we don't know, which
is a lot.

About one-third of the state's students, about 2 million kids, go
to class in the portables, and those numbers aren't about to
decrease, at least not in the near term. If anything, they will
increase.

With the state so dependent on the portables, it needs to do some
follow-up work on this study with a view toward helping local
districts improve classroom air quality. One bill currently under
consideration would provide money for training school district
maintenance personnel on maintaining air quality.

Often that means simply improving ventilation. It stands to
reason that close quarters are going to require special ventilation,
and in some cases that's all that will be needed to be done to
improve the environment.

That may not be the case with the pollution that comes from
building materials, which may be more toxic. At this point, the
state doesn't know. But it needs to find out, if the portables are
to remain so much a workhorse of the schools.

===
Dark side of the Internet

As sure as night follows day, the very openness that makes the
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last decade of the century, it was only a matter of time before
they'd discover the computer.

The potential for scam artists is so vast that a lawmaker quipped
that a con man who isn't on the Internet should be sued for
malpractice. A witty line that is also, unfortunately, true. With so
many people conducting financial business, especially online stock
and bond transactions (14 million in the next three years) over the
Internet, electronic robbery is a sure-bang growth industry.

It has the nation's watchdog of financial markets worried. The
Securities and Exchange Commission has beefed up a staff of lawyers,
accountants and technicians to patrol the Internet for fraud. It's
not enough beefing but it's a start and, more significantly, shows
the SEC as an agency with a clear crystal ball. One basic problem
for the SEC police, so to speak, is the nature of the Internet
itself.

In the past, a con-artist who lusted to make it big in the fraud
business by fleecing thousands of people would have had some
up-front expenses, notably in setting up a bank of phones or a
mailing operation. The Internet changes the rules of engagement. A
cheap computer and a homepage gives a crook instant access to
millions of potential victims. That's why the SEC is worried.

But, what makes the Internet fertile ground for con men also
makes it a garden to be harvested by specially trained police.

Because it is open, police can connect to a crook's homepage, too.

In other words, they can read the very same pitch being made to
potential victims. Trained eyes can pick up a fraudulent come-on.

It's an effective investigatory tool, and in the past, has made it
easy to track down criminals of the World Wide Web. Sure enough, it
can help turn a con man's fear that the police might be watching him
into fear that they probably are. It's another kind of self-policing
so unique to the Internet.

===
In escrow

In California, you normally don't buy a house without involving
an escrow company for a fee. It's an automatic question: "Who do you
want to handle the escrow? "

Escrow companies provide a vital service by acting as an honest
third party between a buyer and a seller of property. Escrow
companies ensure that the parties dot the i's and cross the t's of a
real estate deal - in other words, keep their promises. Escrow
ensures that commitments such as property taxes are paid before the
deal is final.

Escrow usually makes a deal run smoothly by acting as referee.

So, when the referee is being accused of cheating it's a weighty
matter. That's exactly what state Controller Kathleen Connell is
accusing the escrow and title insurance industries of doing. She
contends in a class-action lawsuit that the industry has withheld as
much as $ 500 million from California home buyers since the 1970s.

She calls it "petty crime" in which consumers were overcharged from
a few dollars to as much as $ 500 a transaction.

Controller Connell is trying to recover the money for the state
and consumers. Money isn't the only thing on the line here. It's
also the integrity of a bonded-business whose success is based
largely on trust.

The escrow and title insurance industries deny wrongdoing and
dispute the loss figures. The controller's scatter-shot lawsuit
bruised the entire industry.

When players suspect the ump is calling balls and strikes with
the final score in mind the game is over. This industry has been
damaged, regardless of how the lawsuit proceeds. If skimming
occurred in the dank recesses of the escrow and title insurance
trades, there is nothing like a little sunlight to air it out and
dry it up. Presumably Kathleen Connell knew that.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: June 01, 1999

Copyright 1999 Tower Media, Inc.
The Daily News of Los Angeles
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May 28, 1999, Friday, SAC EDITION

SECTION: NEWS, Pg. SC1

LENGTH: 557 words

HEADLINE: ILL PUPIL BECOMES POSTER CHILD FOR TOXIC CLASSROOMS

BYLINE: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer

DATELINE: CANYON COUNTRY

BODY:

Ten-year-old Aaron Scott's most recent diagnosis: chemically induced immune system dysfunction.

Chronically ill since school began this year in a poorly ventilated portable classroom, Aaron has become the symbolic poster child for a growing national effort to improve the air quality in the temporary buildings, some of which are constructed with toxin-laden materials.

His mother, Laura Scott, fought back tears Thursday at a news conference outside her son's school, Rio Vista Elementary in Canyon Country. Visible from the street, the door to his old classroom, Room 40, was propped open with a chair, an effort by the school to air it out.

''I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Aaron was poisoned by his classroom, and so was his teacher,'' Scott said. ''There is no other explanation.''

Scott spoke at a news conference called by the Environmental Working Group of Washington, D.C., to formally announce its national study titled ''Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution Inside California's portable Classrooms.''

The study follows findings by two doctors in Santa Clarita that at least six children and one teacher from Rio Vista have high levels of arsenic, formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals in their bloodstreams. Those chemicals were in materials used to manufacturer Room 40.

The study confirmed research by the state Department of Health Services and the state Environmental Protection Agency that inexpensive materials used in the portables can poison the air.

The research group's effort is to push manufacturers to limit the toxins in their products - chemicals commonly found in plywood, particle board and carpeting - and to urge state legislators to require air-quality monitoring in portable classrooms.

The chemicals emitted in some portables have been linked to relatively minor health problems including nausea, headaches and runny noses and serious concerns such as liver disease, intestinal problems and, in Aaron's case, a malfunctioning immune system, said Bill Walker, California director of the independent Environmental Working Group.

But Walker cautioned parents not to panic, that only some children are susceptible to chemically induced illnesses and that the solution to the problem can be as simple as bringing fresh air into the room.

''We're really not trying to scare parents,'' Walker said, ''and parents shouldn't pull their kids out of portables. But they need proper ventilation. We're probably looking at tens of thousands more portables in coming years.''

Walker also defended schools, saying they have been given no choice but to seek inexpensive solutions to house students on overcrowded campuses. The trend toward class-size reduction adds to the problem, he said, because more classrooms are needed.

California has 86,500 of the prefabricated bungalows, with hundreds at Santa Clarita Valley schools.

Legislation is pending in Sacramento that would require that schools have a trained staff member regularly check air quality in the portables and make sure ventilation systems are working.

Meanwhile, Aaron Scott is being schooled at home by a Saugus Union School District teacher who visits about five hours a week, his mother said. School officials have told Scott her son will not be in a portable when he returns to campus in the fall.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: May 30, 1999

Copyright 1999 The National Journal Group, Inc.
Greenwire Back to Top

May 28, 1999

SECTION: AIR AND WATER POLLUTION

LENGTH: 242 words

HEADLINE: AIR QUALITY: TOXIC AIR IN CA portable CLASSES -- REPORT

BODY:

The DC-based Environmental Working Group released a report
this week saying that more than 2 million California school
children may be exposed to "high levels of airborne carcinogenic
chemicals" in portable classrooms (Glen Martin, San Francisco
Chronicle).

The report, "Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution
Inside California's portable Classrooms," urges California to
test air samples, establish indoor toxic level guidelines and
require manufacturers to make the classrooms safer. California
has 86,500 portable classrooms (AP/San Francisco
Chronicle/Examiner online).

A 1998 report by members of a state, federal and local
committee and chaired by the California Dept. of Health Services,
"Indoor Environmental Quality in California's Schools: Critical
Needs," comes to "essentially the same conclusions" as the
group's report. The 1998 report, though, "has not yet been made
public," because state health officials said they wanted to wait
until Gov. Gray Davis (D) took office (Kamrhan Farwell, Riverside
(CA) Press-Enterprise).

The release of the report coincided with the California
Assembly Appropriations Committee's approval of a bill introduced
by Majority Leader Kevin Shelley (D) that would provide training
for school maintenance officials on ways to improve indoor air
quality (Bowman/Kollars, Sacramento Bee). (All cites May 27.)

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: May 28, 1999

Copyright 1999 Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles Times
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May 28, 1999, Friday, Valley Edition

SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 1; Zones Desk

LENGTH: 701 words

HEADLINE: STUDY CITES SCHOOLROOM TOXIN RISKS;
HEALTH: REPORT SAYS STUDENTS IN PREFABRICATED BUILDINGS MAY HAVE INCREASED EXPOSURE TO CANCER-CAUSING AGENTS.

BYLINE: MARTHA L. WILLMAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: CANYON COUNTRY

BODY:

Children who attend school in portable classrooms may be at higher risk of exposure to cancer-causing toxins, according to a report released Thursday.

More than 200,000 students in Los Angeles County--and 2 million statewide--now attend class in the portable prefabricated buildings, largely because of class-size reduction mandates, according to the Environmental Working Group, which released the report.

The study, based on tests and scientific literature, found a child's lifetime risk of cancer may be two to three times higher than federally accepted levels because of formaldehyde and other chemicals used in construction of prefabricated buildings, said Bill Walker, California director of the Environmental Working Group.

Inadequate ventilation contributes to the problem, he said.

Based in Washington, the nonprofit Environmental Working Group was founded in 1993 and provides research for environmental advocacy groups.

The group is calling for greater regulations over the industries that make portable classrooms, mobile homes and manufactured housing.

The report was released at a press conference at Rio Vista Elementary School in Canyon Country, where one portable classroom has been vacant since April after several students became ill.

Following the reported illnesses, workers discovered that ventilators in the new classroom, installed this year, had not been opened. Tests by a private firm found no unusual levels of airborne contaminants, district officials said. The tests were ordered by the Saugus Union School District and conducted after the portable was ventilated.

Saugus trustee Judy Umeck said officials "are going above and beyond to find out all that can be done" to resolve problems with classroom air quality.

"We are continuing to investigate every corner and we will adopt a policy to see that it does not happen again," she said.

At the press conference Thursday, the mother of one youngster tearfully described how her 10-year-old son has been too ill to attend school since February, sleeping much of the day and suffering from other symptoms. After months of tests, the youngster's ailments were diagnosed this week as "chemically induced immune dysfunction," said the mother, Laura Scott of Canyon Country.

"He came home the very first day of the spring semester with terrible allergy symptoms," said Scott, whose son, Aaron, is a fourth-grader at Rio Vista. "He couldn't breathe and he had unexplained bruising on his legs. By the end of three weeks, there was no doubt in my mind that it was something at the school. Aaron would just come home like a zombie."

Aaron has been out of school since Feb. 18 and is still recovering, Scott said. "His immune system has been compromised," she said.

"We're talking about hundreds of thousands of kids who may be affected across the nation," said the boy's pediatrician, Dr. Rochelle Feldman, who said she is treating about six other youngsters, some from other schools, who have similar ailments. Feldman warned many physicians may not be aware of allergic symptoms that could be triggered by toxins in portable classrooms and other manufactured housing.

"I don't want parents to get freaked. If the kid doesn't have symptoms, don't worry about it," Feldman said. "But if a kid has symptoms of allergy, headaches, nausea, etc., call a pediatrician and get some kind of screening" for toxic poisoning.

Achva Stein, an environmental architecture professor at USC, said it is well known that toxins are found in portable classrooms "because of the material inside that they use."

"It is part of the 'sick building' syndrome," she said.

The Assembly is expected next week to vote on the Healthy Schools Act (AB 1270), written by Assembly Majority Leader Kevin Shelley (D-San Francisco). The measure calls for the state to study air quality in portable classrooms and to provide schools with training to ensure that portable classrooms are properly ventilated.

Los Angeles County supervisors also took action earlier this month, ordering county health officials to investigate complaints and to consider legislation for the construction and ventilation of portable classrooms.

LANGUAGE: English

LOAD-DATE: May 28, 1999

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Los Angeles Times
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May 28, 1999, Friday, Home Edition

SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 4; Metro Desk

LENGTH: 195 words

HEADLINE: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA / A NEWS SUMMARY;
THE LOCAL REVIEW / DEVELOPMENTS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY;
STUDY WARNS OF POSSIBLE CANCER RISK IN SCHOOLS

DATELINE: CANYON COUNTRY

BODY:

Children who attend school in portable classrooms may be at higher risk of exposure to cancer causing substances, according to a report released Thursday.

More than 200,000 students in Los Angeles County--and 2 million statewide--now attend classes in the portable, prefabricated buildings, largely because of class size reduction mandates, according to the Environmental Working Group, which released the report.

The study, based on tests and scientific literature, said that a child's lifetime risk of cancer may be two to three times higher than federally accepted levels because of the formaldehyde and other chemicals used in the construction of prefabricated buildings, according to Bill Walker, California director of the Environmental Working Group.

Inadequate ventilation contributes to the problem, he said.

Based in Washington, the nonprofit Environmental Working Group was founded in 1993 and provides research for environmental advocacy groups.

The report was released at a news conference at Rio Vista Elementary School in Canyon Country, where one portable classroom has been vacant since April because several students became ill.

LANGUAGE: English

LOAD-DATE: May 28, 1999

Copyright 1999 Ventura County Star
Ventura County Star (Ventura County, Ca.)
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May 28, 1999, Friday

SECTION: News; Pg. A01

LENGTH: 767 words

HEADLINE: Report: Schools' portables pose risk
POSSIBLE HEALTH EFFECTS: Local educators dispute group's study conclusions.

BYLINE: Kathleen Wilson
Staff writer

BODY:

Some students and teachers might be exposed to significant levels of toxic chemicals and molds in portable classrooms, which have multiplied across California as school districts have reduced class sizes, an environmental group claims in a report issued Thursday.

The nonprofit Environmental Working Group says that, although health risks are difficult to determine, students or teachers who suffered medical problems in portables recovered when they switched classrooms or ventilation was improved. The organization said a review of scientific studies showed that some portables can expose children to toxic chemicals that "pose an unacceptable risk of increasing their chances of developing cancer or other serious illness."

But some school officials questioned the validity of the findings, saying ventilation makes a huge difference in the quality of air inside the rooms. That means leaving the windows or doors open when the heating and air conditioning are off, said Gary Mortimer, assistant superintendent in the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

"When teachers don't ventilate the room properly, toxins can build up," he said.

Ventura County schools have installed hundreds of the classrooms to reduce class sizes and to keep up with enrollment growth. They are cheaper than building additions and new schools, which became difficult to fund after the tax revolt of the late 1970s.

Statewide, there are more than 86,500 portable classrooms in use.

Researchers say more than 2 million California children attend school in portables, and their use has doubled in the 1990s.

The Environmental Working Group calculated that some children exposed to the level of formaldehyde measured in portables face a greater risk of cancer. Exposure to the chemical compound benzene can carry the same increased risk, the authors said.

Six children at Rio Vista School in the Santa Clarita Valley community of Saugus were recently diagnosed with high levels of formaldehyde, arsenic and benzene in their blood. Doctors said toxins from building materials in a classroom were to blame.

Mortimer, though, said that new portables no longer have glues and carpets containing formaldehyde, and that the older ones have lost any toxicity over time. "Everything that's going to bleed off is going to be gone, so they're not a hazard as long as their ventilation system is working," he said.

But Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, who is co-sponsoring a bill aimed at creating schools with healthy air quality, called for more attention to environmental safety of schools.

"With all the demand for portable classrooms, there's a concern that they're coming off the product line too fast and not being given enough time to aerate so they can dry," she said. "Older portables designed for a three- to five-year life span are now going on 20 years and starting to deteriorate."

The authors of the report, "Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution Inside California's portable Classrooms," said California has fallen far short of what it should do.

"California has no indoor air health standards for most toxins found in portables. Those that do exist are based on the risk of short-term health effects, ignoring the long-term potential for these chemicals to cause cancer or other serious illnesses," they said.

The authors said existing standards are based on supposedly safe levels of exposure for adult men, not children and other sensitive populations. "There are no enforceable regulations, no monitoring programs, not even restrictions preventing manufacturers from continuing to sell portables to schools after the company's buildings have been repeatedly implicated in health complaints," the study says.

The Working Group also accuses the state of allowing a report warning of problems in portables and other classrooms to languish in bureaucratic limbo.

Although state officials said the most important part of the report, which tells school districts how to improve the safety of portables, had been released to district officials, the state is reissuing the report. They did not deny that air quality is a significant issue in schools.

"I think it's something we need to pay some attention to," said Dwayne Brooks, director of school facilities for the state Department of Education.

Marilyn Fox, one of scores of Ventura County teachers who work in portable classrooms all day, is waiting for more evidence.

"I've been feeling very ill this year," the Ventura High School teacher said. But she said she couldn't be sure it was the portable that caused it.

LANGUAGE: English

LOAD-DATE: May 29, 1999

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
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The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press.

May 27, 1999, Thursday, AM cycle

SECTION: State and Regional

LENGTH: 586 words

HEADLINE: Children in portable classrooms exposed to cancer-causing toxins

DATELINE: SANTA CLARITA, Calif.

BODY:

More than 2 million California kids attend school in portable classrooms that could sicken them with an airborne stew of formaldehyde and cancer-causing chemicals, researchers charged Thursday.

"We should not be sending our children to school in buildings that may make them sick," said Bill Walker of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, which released "Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution Inside California's portable Classrooms."

California has 86,500 of the prefabricated bungalows, known as "glue boxes" by critics because fumes emitted from particle-board walls and carpets can turn the air toxic in the poorly ventilated rooms.

Colds, headaches, allergies and asthma are the short term effects, Walker told reporters against a backdrop of portable classrooms where six Rio Vista Elementary School students were recently diagnosed with high levels of formaldehyde, arsenic and cancer-causing benzene in their blood.

Doctors believe toxins from building materials in a classroom at the Saugus campus were to blame. Researchers said they were exposed to levels of formaldehyde that posed as much as three times the cancer risk allowed under federal law.

"We're really not trying to scare parents," Walker said, "and parents shouldn't pull their kids out of portables. But they need proper ventilation. We're probably looking at tens of thousands more portables in coming years.

"Something has to be done."

The report urged the state to act immediately to conduct air samples, establish indoor toxic level guidelines and require manufacturers to make the bungalows safer.

"The state has failed to exercise effective oversight over air quality in portable classrooms," the report charged. "There are no enforceable regulations, no monitoring programs, not even restrictions preventing manufacturers from continuing to sell portables to schools after the company's buildings have been repeatedly implicated in health complaints."

California Department of Health Services spokesman Ken August said he was aware of the Environmental Working Group report but he had no comment.

"The state should either provide schools with the money they need to build permanent classrooms, or require that the makers of portable classrooms reduce their use of toxic construction materials," Walker said.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee approved AB 1207 by Majority Leader Kevin Shelley of San Francisco that would provide training for school maintenance officials on ways to improve indoor air quality. The bill moves to the Assembly floor next week.

Walker said manufacturers of portable classrooms should take responsibility for making them safe.

"The companies making these glue boxes for schools bear responsibility to use less toxic materials, and make sure they are properly ventilated," Walker said.

In the giant Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest, an estimated 161,750 children are taught in bungalows. That number is growing because of class-size reductions mandated in 1996 and an increasing student population.

School board member David Tokofsky said the district's reliance on portables is "symptomatic of its lack of facilities planning."

"We're relying on putting our children in what amounts to shipping containers," Tokofsky said. "They've got to go."

Annual sales of the modular buildings jumped from 4,000 in 1996 to 24,000 in 1997, according to the School Facility Manufacturers' Association, representing most makers of portable classrooms.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: May 27, 1999

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
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The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press.

May 27, 1999, Thursday, PM cycle

SECTION: State and Regional

LENGTH: 464 words

HEADLINE: Children in portable classrooms may be exposed to cancer-causing toxins

DATELINE: SACRAMENTO

BODY:

Some of the more than 2 million California schoolchildren in portable classrooms may be exposed to airborne cancer-causing toxins, a research group charged today.

Chemicals emitted from bungalow construction materials can also cause nausea, headaches, diarrhea and other health effects.

"The state has failed to exercise effective oversight over air quality in portable classrooms," authors of the report "Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution Inside California's portable Classrooms" wrote.

Dangerous levels of formaldehyde and other chemicals used in the manufacture of bungalows build up in poorly ventilated portable classrooms, the study by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group said.

"We should not be sending our children to school in buildings that may make them sick," California group director Bill Walker said. "Better ventilation will improve the air quality in portable classrooms, but they still emit airborne toxic chemicals that can harm students' and teachers' health.

"The state should either provide schools with the money they need to build permanent classrooms, or require that the makers of portable classrooms reduce their use of toxic construction materials."

The report urged the state to act immediately to conduct air samples, establish indoor toxic level guidelines and require manufacturers to make the bungalows safer.

"There are no enforceable regulations, no monitoring programs, not even restrictions preventing manufacturers from continuing to sell portables to schools after the company's buildings have been repeatedly implicated in health complaints," the report said.

More than 2 million California schoolchildren are housed in some 86,500 portable classrooms, researchers estimated. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the report estimates, there are 161,750 children taught in bungalows.

Tests found that students in portables in the Santa Clarita area north of Los Angeles were exposed to levels of formaldehyde that posed as much as three times the cancer risk allowed under federal law, the researchers said.

California Department of Health Services spokesman Ken August had no comment.

The new study is another measure of the growing concern among scientists, health officials and others about indoor air in portables.

Six children at Rio Vista Elementary School in the Santa Clarita Valley community of Saugus were recently diagnosed with high levels of formaldehyde, arsenic and cancer-causing benzene in their blood.

Doctors believe toxins from building materials in a classroom were to blame.

"Saugus is only the most recent case - unfortunately there are cases like this in various parts of the state every year or so," said Bill Walker, California director of the Environmental Working Group.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: May 27, 1999

COPYRIGHT 1999 City News Service, Inc.
City News Service
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May 27, 1999, Thursday

LENGTH: 299 words

HEADLINE: portable Classrooms

DATELINE: LOS ANGELES

BODY:

More than 200,000 children in the county attend schools in portable classrooms, where they may be exposed to significant amounts of
airborne toxins, according to a report released today.

The toxins include formaldehyde and other cancer-causing chemicals, according to the Environmental Working Group's ''Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution Inside California's portable Classrooms.''

More than 2 million children attend classes in the state's roughly 86,500 portable classrooms, which are partly in use due to class-size reduction mandates.

The review of scientific literature shows that long-term exposure to airborne chemicals may increase a child's lifetime risk of cancer by two to three times the level deemed acceptable under federal law, according to EWG, a non-profit, independent organization.

Short-term exposure to the chemicals or toxic molds commonly found in portable classrooms can cause nausea, headaches and diarrhea, according to the report.

''We should not be sending our children to school in buildings that may make them sick,'' said Bill Walker, California director of EWG.

''Better ventilation will improve the air quality in portable classrooms, but they still emit airborne toxic chemicals that can harm students' and teachers' health,'' Walker said outside Rio Vista Elementary School in Canyon Country.

Several Rio Vista students and teachers in portable classrooms got sick earlier this month.

''The state should either provide schools with the money they need to build permanent classrooms, or require that the makers of portable classrooms reduce their use of toxic construction materials,'' Walker said.

NOTES:
EWG's Bill Walker or Zev Ross can be reached at (415) 561-6698.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: May 28, 1999

Copyright 1999 Tower Media, Inc.
The Daily News of Los Angeles
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May 27, 1999, Thursday, VALLEY EDITION

SECTION: NEWS, Pg. N4

LENGTH: 902 words

HEADLINE: portables POLICY LAMBASTED; STATE OFFERS NO PROTECTION FROM CLASSROOM TOXICITY, REPORT SAYS

BYLINE: Terri Hardy Sacramento Bureau

DATELINE: SACRAMENTO

BODY:

More than a third of California children who attend school in portable classrooms potentially face an unacceptable risk of exposure to cancer-causing toxics in the air - and the state has failed to protect them, according to a new report released today.

Dangerous levels of formaldehyde and other chemicals used in the manufacture of bungalows have been found to build up in poorly ventilated portables, the report said.

Tests found that students in portable classrooms in the Santa Clarita area, for example, were exposed to levels of formaldehyde that posed as much as three times the cancer risk allowed under federal law, according to the study by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization.

The report urges immediate state action, including air sampling, establishing acceptable indoor toxic levels for children and requiring portable manufacturers to build safer bungalows.

''The state has failed to exercise effective oversight over air quality in portable classrooms,'' according to the authors of the report titled ''Reading, Writing and Risk: Air Pollution Inside California's portable Classrooms.''

''There are no enforceable regulations, no monitoring programs, not even restrictions preventing manufacturers from continuing to sell portables to schools after the company's buildings have been repeatedly implicated in health complaints.''

Ken August, spokesman for the state Department of Health Services, had no comment on the report.

''I don't have any information that I can share with you,'' August said.

Bobbi Farrell, president of the San Fernando Valley's 31st District Parent Teacher Student Association, was shocked by the report's findings.

''This causes great concern,'' Farrell said. ''portables have been the only way out for Los Angeles schools to provide classrooms. But this changes things if it's true. The child's health is more important than anything.''

The new study is another measure of the growing concern among scientists, health officials and others about indoor air in portables. Six children at Rio Vista Elementary School in Saugus recently were diagnosed with high levels of formaldehyde, arsenic and cancer-causing benzene in their blood - a result, physicians believe, of toxins from building materials in a classroom.

''Saugus is only the most recent case - unfortunately there are cases like this in various parts of the state every year or so,'' said Bill Walker, California director of the Environmental Working Group.

Earlier this month, the Daily News reported that only a smattering of school officials in Los Angeles County have received training in a federal program that advises how to keep the air quality of bungalows safe.

The Daily News also disclosed that a study warning of the air quality in portables - written by a group of scientists, educators and health officials - had gone unpublished, allowed to languish for more than nine months within the state bureaucracy.

The new report noted the Daily News investigation, and called for the state to immediately make the document public.

It urges Gov. Gray Davis to focus on the air quality issue, particularly because state voters passed a record $ 9.2 billion bond measure for school construction - some of which will go toward purchasing portables.

Michael Bustamante, the governor's spokesman, said he could not comment on the report's recommendations.

The report will be available today at the group's Internet site, www.ewg.org, a spokesman said.

The report found that the toxic compounds that can gather in portables can, at low levels, cause eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches and dizziness. Longer-term exposure can cause cancer ''and are of particular concern when children are exposed.''

Yet despite the high potential for toxic problems in portables, California has not set standards for levels of these chemicals in indoor air, or even set up a process of air monitoring. Tests taken in mobile homes with similar construction ''strongly suggests that portable classrooms may expose their occupants to potentially harmful levels of a number of contaminants,'' the report found.

The report estimates that more than 2 million California schoolchildren are housed in some 86,500 portable classrooms. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the report estimates, there are 161,750 children taught in bungalows.

That number is increasing, given additional class-size reduction efforts and an increasing student population.

David Tokofsky, a member of the Los Angeles school board, said the district's reliance on portables is ''symptomatic of its lack of facilities planning.''

''We're relying on putting our children in what amounts to shipping containers,'' Tokofsky said. ''They've got to go.''

A watchdog group overseeing the $ 2.4 billion Proposition BB repair and construction project also has called for the district to carefully review its rush to buy portables and consider the increasing concerns about indoor air quality.

Erik Nasarenko, a district spokesman, said the district has an aggressive program in place to maintain portable heat and air systems. And, portables purchased by the district have had their vents opened before they arrive, he said.

''Indoor air quality is an issue the district takes very seriously, and one we believe we are addressing,'' Nasarenko said.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: May 28, 1999

Copyright 1999 The Press Enterprise Co.
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE (RIVERSIDE, CA.)
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May 27, 1999, Thursday , ALL ZONES

SECTION: A SECTION; Pg. A01

LENGTH: 1785 words

HEADLINE: Problems in portable classrooms;
Report finds potential for air-quality dangers.

BYLINE: Kamrhan Farwell, The Press-Enterprise

BODY:

One-third of California schoolchildren are sitting in portable
classrooms, where they can be exposed to airborne toxins, and no one
is monitoring the problem, says a national environmental think tank
report released today.

The Environmental Working Group found portable classrooms use
materials similar to those in permanent structures, but the
temporary buildings, where ventilation is poor and the risk of water
leaks is greater, can become breeding grounds for toxic molds and
other chemicals.

State and local air-quality experts agree that the potential for
serious health hazards exists, but they say lack of fresh air is the
most common problem in the estimated 86,500 portables in California.

The treatment can be as simple as opening a window or switching on a
thermostat fan.

"I don't think problems that make kids ill are epidemic," said
Andy Yasenovsky, safety manager for the San Bernardino County
superintendent of schools. "But air quality in portable classrooms
is something we need to address. "

The authors of the report concede it is hard to gauge the
seriousness of the situation because evidence of sick children and
teachers is mainly anecdotal. More than a dozen cases involving
problems ranging from headaches and dizziness to asthmalike symptoms
have been reported in the Inland area in recent years.

The environmental watchdog group's report points to a lack of
government oversight or studies on the quality of air in the
temporary classrooms and suggests the situation deserves attention.

The national nonprofit group provides studies and reports on
public-safety issues for those fighting to protect the environment.

Both the California Department of Health Services and California
Environmental Protection Agency provided information and statistics
for the report.

"We don't want to cause alarm,"said Zev A. Ross, an analyst and
co-author of the report. "Our purpose is to get people thinking
about this and convince the state it's a big enough issue. "

A 1998 report by members of state, federal and local agencies and
chaired by the California Department of Health Services comes to
many of the same conclusions, also suggesting better oversight and
more study.

The "Indoor Environmental Quality in California Schools: Critical
Needs" report has not yet been made public. The document has been in
limbo since it was written because health officials decided to wait
until after Gov. Davis took office, according to Ken August, a
spokesman for the state Department of Health Services.

But a copy that The Press-Enterprise obtained drew essentially
the same conclusions as those of the environmental group.

"In California, no agency or group has central authority as a
watchdog for children in their school environment," the report
states.

Schools suffer because there has been insufficient money over the
past two decades to do quality maintenance.

"Continued neglect will have considerable health, educational and
financial costs to the children, school staff and citizens of
California," the report reads.

Portable classrooms have been in use in California since before
World War II, but the numbers exploded in 1996, when the state
reduced class sizes for the primary grades. School officials had
only months to create the extra space needed.

Portable classroom manufacturers saw sales soar from about 4,000
buildings a year to 24,000 as schools covered playgrounds and any
other available space with the new buildings.

Latest estimates are that 2 million children in the state now
spend time in portable classrooms.

Manufacturers say they cannot be responsible for what happens
after buildings are installed.

"We supply a maintenance manual with every classroom," said Bill
Meehleis of Meehleis Modular Buildings in Lodi, "but nobody does
it. "

All materials and ventilation systems are approved by the state,
manufacturers said.

"We use the same wall finish and real two-by-fours (used in
permanent structures)," Meehleis said. "We are not using chewing gum
and staples to put these things together. "

Local environmental-health workers describe classrooms where
artwork covers the thermostat, ventilation ducts that have never
been opened and clutter that makes cleaning difficult.

The result can be bad ventilation in most cases and too much
carbon dioxide, a product of human breath, which causes children and
teachers to become fatigued or suffer headaches.

More seriously, when water leaks are not attended to promptly,
toxic molds can grow, causing potential for nosebleeds, nausea or
respiratory problems, according to the state Environmental
Protection Agency.

Local incidence of air-quality problems include:

o A handful of teachers at Washington Elementary School in
Corona, who blamed chronic respiratory illnesses on their permanent
classrooms last October. Six years earlier, the school was
evacuated, and high levels of fungus were found in the air ducts.

o In November 1997, Fontana schools officials tested six portable
classrooms at Southridge Middle School after claims filed by five
employees said they became ill from a mildewlike odor caused by
rains soaking the roofs of the classrooms.

The test found the levels of mold were within "acceptable" range,
but the rooms needed more fresh air.

o A dozen students at Pachappa Elementary School in Riverside
reported dizziness, burning eyes and headaches in February 1997. The
classroom was evacuated, and the symptoms disappeared.

o In May of the same year, Riverside County health officials
found inadequate ventilation in portable classrooms at Prado View
Elementary School in Corona to be the cause of headaches and
asthmalike symptoms that students and teachers had been complaining
of for two years.

Severe illness traced to portable classrooms is rare, said Steve
Uhlman, health department inspector for Riverside County Health
Services.

"More often than not we find lack of ventilation," he said.

"Nothing dangerous, but it detracts from air quality. "

In Riverside County, 80 percent of calls about classroom air
quality involve portables, he said.

Air-quality experts said teachers often turn off thermostats to
reduce noise. But if neither the heater nor the cooler is on, air
circulation stops.

"Individual thermostats is one of the things teachers like about
portable classrooms," said Mike Henning, executive vice president of
Modtech Inc. of Perris, the state's largest manufacturer of portable
classrooms. "But (teachers) don't know what they are doing. "

Much of the answer, experts agreed, lies in training those who
are using portable classrooms.

Legislation introduced by Assemblyman Kevin Shelley of San
Francisco calls for more training, testing and incentives for school personnel. The measure, AB 1207, was approved by the Assembly
Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday and moves to the Assembly
floor next week.

Two years ago, the Department of Education sent an advisory
alerting schools to common maintenance errors. The state EPA holds
seminars and provides checklists for teachers, administrators and
school maintenance people.

An invisible problem can easily be ignored in the busy lives of
teachers and principals, said Sid Efross, information specialist at
the state EPA.

"It requires parents, teachers and administrators pay attention,"
he said. "And when something occurs, don't sweep it under the rug."

----------------------------------------- --------------

Tips to clear classroom air

Many indoor air-quality problems in portable classrooms are
caused by improper maintenance. The Environmental Protection Agency
suggests the following tips for school staffs:

o Keep ventilation systems on, even if heat or cooling is not
needed.

o Do not cover thermostats.

o Do not place refrigerators or computers too close to
thermostats.

o Avoid furniture arrangements that make carpeted areas tough to
clean.

o Do not soak carpeting when cleaning.

o Attend to leaks promptly to avoid mold.

o Do not cover leaks by replacing ceiling tile rather than
letting the opening dry.

o Make sure exhaust ducts from plumbing, furnaces or idling cars
are not too close to air vents of portable classrooms.

o Make sure air vents are open.

o Keep classroom pets well-maintained.

o Make sure photocopier fumes are directed away from classroom
occupants.

o Make sure ventilation systems are not clogged.

o Wax or strip floors on Fridays, rather than Mondays.

o Report inside air-quality problems immediately.

Note: A more detailed list is available on the EPA Web site,
under its Tools for Schools program, at http://www.epa.gov

Source: Environmental Protection Agency
----------------------------------------- -----------------

Portables abound in state school districts

The top 20 largest school districts in the state are heavy users
of portable classrooms.

Students in

No. of portables
Rank District County Enrollment portables (est.)*

1 Los Angeles Los Angeles 680,430 6,470 161,750
2 San Diego San Diego 136,283 1,864 46,600
3 Long Beach Los Angeles 85,908 1,275 31,875
4 Fresno Fresno 78,156 1,251 31,275
5 San Francisco San Francisco 61,007 N/A** N/A**
6 Santa Ana Orange 53,805 690 17,250
7 Oakland Alameda 53,564 800 20,000
8 Sacramento Sacramento 51,042 847 175
9 San Juan Sacramento 47,837 530 13,250
10 San Bernardino San Bernardino 47,385 353 8,825
11 Garden Grove Orange 45,776 315 7,875
12 Elk Grove Sacramento 40,197 840 21,000
13 Capistrano Orange 40,174 750 18,750
14 Riverside Riverside 38,878 511 12,775
15 Mount Diablo Contra Costa 35,841 319 7,975
16 Stockton San Joaquin 35,645 531 13,275
17 Montebello Los Angeles 33,771 520 13,000
18 Fontana San Bernardino 33,332 530 13,250
19 Saddleback

Valley Orange 33,172 338 8,450
20 West Contra
Costa Contra Costa 33,110 393 9,825
------------------------------------------ ------------------
TOTAL 19,127 478,175

*Based on 25 students per unit.

**San Francisco Unified failed, despite repeated requests, to supply
the number of portables in use.

Source: Environmental Working Group

Leslie Gilley / The Press-Enterprise

NOTES:
INCLUDES INFO BOXES

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: June 01, 1999

Copyright 1999 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.
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May 27, 1999, METRO FINAL

SECTION: MAIN NEWS; Pg. A1

LENGTH: 1142 words

HEADLINE: WORRY ON AIR IN portable CLASSES

BYLINE: Chris Bowman and Deb Kollars, Bee Staff Writers

BODY:

Portable schoolrooms, California's way of keeping classes small and taxpayers content, are coming under increasing scrutiny for their potential to make children sick.

Critics call the prefabricated structures "glue boxes," where fumes emitted from particle-board walls and carpets can turn the air toxic in stuffy rooms. Poor air quality can lead to recurring colds, headaches, allergies, chronic sinusitus and asthma attacks.

Representatives of the booming portable-classroom industry say the same materials are found in permanent school buildings and properly aired portable structures should pose no health problem.

The debate is especially important in California, where the number of temporary structures is exploding, with an estimated 2 million students spending some part of their day inside one of the 85,000 portable classrooms now dotting school grounds.

Calls for reform peaked Wednesday.

A national environmental organization released a report urging state limits on the amount of chemicals used in school building material, which currently have no requirements for preventative maintenance or indoor air pollution standards.

At the same time, the Assembly Appropriations Committee approved a bill by the majority leader that would provide training for school maintenance officials on ways to improve indoor air quality. The measure, AB 1207, by Majority Leader Kevin Shelley of San Francisco, moves to the Assembly floor next week.

Also, a state-commissioned panel of scientists, school officials and environmental health specialists are calling for a "full investigation" of air quality inside relocatable and permanent school buildings alike, and more scrupulous government oversight of school ventilation systems, from design to maintenance.

The recommendations, obtained Wednesday by The Bee, are awaiting review by Gov. Gray Davis, an outspoken advocate of school building improvements.

Though portable classrooms are not systematically inspected for environmental health, examples abound of deteriorated conditions in school districts in high-growth areas such as Riverside and San Bernardino counties and Elk Grove.

In the report released Wednesday, the Environmental Working Group argues the portable classrooms are inherently more prone to buildup of fumes and mold than permanent structures.

"The companies making these glue boxes for schools bear responsibility to use less toxic materials, and make sure they are properly ventilated," said Bill Walker, a spokesman for the nonprofit environmental advocacy group in San Francisco.

Of greatest concern are pollutants -- such as formaldehyde, benzene and toluene -- called volatile organic compounds that are known to cause cancer or harm the reproductive system, Walker said.

Industry representatives disagree.

"Our flooring is the same, the wall finish is the same, the ceiling is the same (as modern school buildings), so I don't know where this concern is coming from," said Bill Meehleis, owner of a modular building factory in Lodi.

Meehleis said, however, that schools are generally lax about changing air filters and painting the portables to prevent dry rot and mold. He said most portable classrooms can last up to 50 years if properly maintained.

The focus on environmental health at public schools comes amid the merging of three growing concerns statewide: a boom in portable classrooms, a huge deficit in building maintenance and growing awareness that children are more vulnerable than adults to environmental contaminants.

Although portable classrooms have been in use in California since the post-World War II baby boom, their use has soared in the past 20 years due to population growth and the limited ability under Proposition 13's property tax curbs to build more expensive, permanent schools.

The number of portables has skyrocketed since 1996, when the state began offering school districts cash bonuses for reducing class size. Annual sales of the modular buildings jumped from 4,000 to 24,000 in 1997, according to the School Facility Manufacturers' Association, representing most makers of portable classrooms.

The rush to portables may have put some children in new portable classrooms that left the factory before they were properly aired, according to the report on "Indoor Environmental Quality in California Schools" commissioned by the state Department of Health Services.

"This did not provide adequate time for construction materials, paints, carpets or furnishings to off-gas hazardous chemicals, such as formaldehyde," the report says. "Several (school) districts have reported significant health problems in their new relocatable or newly renovated classrooms."

The Division of the State Architect, which monitors school building plans for fire and structural safety issues and accessibility to people with disabilities, does not look at air quality. And there is no agreement on what constitutes unhealthful levels of air pollutants indoors.

"There are so many issues -- radon, lead, the concerns about the portables," said Duwayne Brooks, director of school facilities for the state Department of Education. "The answer is not to just go out and start closing down portables. We need to look at all the issues and address this in a comprehensive manner."

Brooks said his staff has been meeting with the Governor's Office and state health officials to find ways to better monitor the quality of school environments.

Complaints from parents and teachers are rising, state officials said.

Most recently, several schoolchildren in the San Fernando Valley community of Saugus were found to have high levels of formaldehyde, phenol and arsenic in their blood and urine that a toxicologist attributed to poor ventilation in the school's portable classrooms. The scientist, Gary Ordog at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital, said the health problems were short-term and could be remedied by simply getting more fresh air into the classrooms.

Last school year in Elk Grove, several students and their teacher at McKee Elementary became ill from toxin-producing molds in their portable classroom. The mold-infested classroom was closed and sold.

After checking at other schools, the Elk Grove Unified School District wound up closing 20 classrooms at other elementary schools last summer and fall. The classrooms were scrubbed cleaned and portions of walls and ceilings were replaced before children were allowed back, said Constantine Baranoff, assistant superintendent.

Baranoff added that over the years, schools have been under pressure to keep energy costs down by creating airtight buildings. Now they are being warned about the air pollution that can occur in tight buildings, he said.

"Synthetic materials are everywhere now," he said. "This is a very complicated matter."

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: May 28, 1999

Copyright 1999 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
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MAY 27, 1999, THURSDAY, FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A19

LENGTH: 725 words

HEADLINE: Study Finds Toxic Air In portable Classrooms;

Carcinogen exposure may affect 2 million kids

BYLINE: Glen Martin, Chronicle Staff Writer

DATELINE: STATEWIDE

BODY:

A report released yesterday concludes that the 2 million California children who attend school in portable classrooms may be exposed to high levels of airborne carcinogenic chemicals.

The report by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, D.C., coincides with the announcement of a bill by California Assemblyman Kevin Shelley, D-San Francisco, that would require the state to set standards for air quality in portable classrooms.

According to data compiled from state and county sources by the Environmental Working Group, some portable classrooms in California have up to 2,900 micrograms of carcinogenic "volatile organic compounds" -- such as formaldehyde, benzene and toluene -- per cubic meter of air.

That is almost 15 times the level considered the "comfort zone" for these compounds by a coalition of European air quality experts and six times the level considered safe by the state of Washington, the only state that sets standards for portable classroom air quality.

Bill Walker, the California director for the environmental group, said children are particularly threatened by such compounds.

"We know that growing children often show a greater sensitivity to harmful chemicals than adults," he said.

Portable classrooms are made of plastics and other synthetic materials that "outgas" toxic compounds.

The number of portable classrooms has exploded in California since the Class Size Reduction Act of 1997 went into effect. Under the law, the state pays part of the costs for districts to reduce the number of students per classroom.

Many school districts had no money for building additional standard classroom buildings, so they turned to less expensive portable classrooms. In 1991, there were approximately 43,000 such classrooms in the state. Today, there are about 86,500, accommodating about 2 million students.

The report adds to concerns over contaminated indoor air. Levels of toxic compounds in the air of offices, homes and schools have been climbing with the increased use of energy efficient designs and glue-bonded chipboard, plastic, synthetic carpets and other modern building materials.

Generally speaking, the more efficient a building is in maintaining interior temperatures, the poorer the air circulation. If such a building employs large quantities of modern materials, outgassed toxics can be retained at concentrated levels.

The report follows an announcement by a Santa Clarita toxicologist who found high quantities of arsenic, benzene and phenol -- all associated with modern building materials -- in the blood and urine of students who attended school in portable classrooms in Saugus, in Los Angeles County.

"Air from some of the Saugus classrooms had formaldehyde levels of 13 parts per billion," said Walker. "The cancer threshold risk for outdoor air established by the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment is less than one part per billion."

Walker said it is hard to draw firm conclusions from a database that is still limited -- which is why Shelley's bill is important.

"But what the data we have now tell us is that if a child was exposed to a lifetime of the formaldehyde concentrations found in a portable classroom, he or she would have two or three times the risk of developing cancer as a child not exposed to those concentrations," he said.

Shelley said that his bill -- which is expected go to the floor of the Assembly next week -- has nothing directly to do with the study but that a comprehensive system for evaluating the environmental health of California schools is long overdue.

"We think the chances for passage are quite good," he said. "It addresses the entire health aspect of schools -- not just air quality, but pesticides and lead (in soil and water)."

Walker said that portable classrooms should be ultimately phased out but that mitigation measures can be undertaken immediately to reduce their risk to students.

"We need to install better ventilation systems on the ones that are already in use and mandate nontoxic materials for building new ones," he said. "It will be more expensive, but it will certainly be worth it, considering it's our children we're talking about."

For more information, visit www.ewg.org, the Environmental Working Group's site on the Web.

GRAPHIC: PHOTO, Kevin Shelley introduced a bill that would require standards for air quality in portable classrooms

LOAD-DATE: May 27, 1999

Copyright 1999 U.P.I.

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May 27, 1999, Thursday, BC cycle

SECTION: Regional News

DISTRIBUTION: California

LENGTH: 241 words

HEADLINE: School portables health warning raised

DATELINE: SACRAMENTO, May 27

BODY:

Environmentalists and lawmakers have launched a new effort to reduce toxic air in portable classrooms used by more than 2 million California schoolchildren. They called a statehouse news conference today to release a new report documenting the threat in an estimated 86,500 portable classrooms and to promote legislation to address it. Speakers said in most cases, proper ventilation to circulate fresh air and new paint to control mold will eliminate airborne toxins such as formaldehyde and other cancer-causing chemicals. The report by the Environmental Working Group says fumes emitted from particle board walls and carpets can turn the air toxic in stuffy rooms, causing recurring colds, headaches, allergies, chronic sinusitis and asthma attacks. It also says portable classrooms are inherently more prone to buildup of fumes and mold than permanent structures. Legislation awaiting action on the Assembly floor would provide training for school maintenance officials on ways to improve indoor air quality. Assemblyman Kevin Shelley, D-San Francisco, says his bill would require schools to conduct audits and make corrections before they are certified as ''healthy schools'' by Jan. 1, 2001. It also would require a state review of the condition of existing school buildings with particular attention to ventilation. ---

Copyright 1999 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: May 28, 1999

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