Clean, Green, and Healthy Schools: Region 2 Highlights
Clean, Green and Healthy Schools Regional Highlights showcases exceptional school environmental health projects within each of EPA’s ten regions.
EPA Region 2 includes New Jersey, and New York; and tribes; and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands.
On this page:
2014 Highlights
Making Tangible Efforts to Improve Children’s Health in New York and Puerto Rico
Initial CEPD evaluations have found peeling ceiling plaster in numerous classrooms, such as in this English classroom located in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico.Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), though banned in 1979 because of their adverse health effects, continue to pose a health threat to millions of people due to trace amounts found in paints, caulk, electrical fixtures, and other products that are still in use today. Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of PCBs; their organ systems are still developing and they breathe more air and require more food and water per pound of body weight relative to adults. In New York, PCBs have been on the forefront of environmental health issues for decades. To lead the charge against PCBs in schools, EPA Region 2 has teamed up with New York City to replace electrical light fixtures throughout city schools, which were installed prior to the ban and likely contain PCBs. The project, worth $800 million and funded by New York City, will result in new light fixtures in 750 of the city’s 1,500 public schools. Although the project will not be completed until 2016, initial indoor air quality evaluations have already shown decreases of PCB concentrations in relevant schools. This project is one huge step towards reducing PCB levels in New York City schools.
Region 2 has also been actively addressing the issue of elevated blood-lead levels in children. EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck noticed last year that Newburgh, located about 60 miles north of New York City, has among the highest rates of elevated blood-lead levels in children in New York State. Shortly after, various elected officials, government agencies, non-profits, and community groups came together to form the Lead Safe Newburgh Coalition, which operates at the city, county, state, and federal levels to address elevated childhood blood-lead levels in Newburgh. To address this issue, Region 2 has implemented the 3Ts (training, testing, and telling) Program for reducing lead in schools. The 3Ts Program is a voluntary service offered by the EPA involving the evaluation and remediation of elevated lead levels in drinking water outlets in schools. In Newburgh, 1,000 water samples have been taken from 14 school buildings as well as one Head Start facility. After analyzing the results, the Coalition will work with the EPA to determine which remediation strategy will be most effective in each facility.
Region 2 also has an ongoing initiative to evaluate environmental health indicators in Puerto Rican schools. The region’s Caribbean Environmental Protection Division (CEPD) is currently conducting an assessment of Puerto Rico’s schools by surveying them for common health hazards including asbestos, lead, mold, and PCBs, and evaluating the processes schools have in place to protect children against such toxins. To obtain a representative sample of schools across the island, the study will assess 90 schools from a variety of settings. Once the initial investigations are completed and the data are analyzed, CEPD will issue a report regarding its findings. In addition, reports will be issued to individual schools indicating any concerns of which they should be aware. The project will take two years, and is funded through grants from the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection.
2013 Highlights
Preventing Lead Poisoning in Schools with the 3Ts Program
Since 1999, the 3Ts Program for Reducing Lead in Schools and Childcare Centers has been a major success for children’s environmental health in New York and New Jersey. The voluntary program selects two school districts per year to participate, using environmental justice data and blood lead level statistics to determine which schools have the greatest need. EPA provides free sampling to schools in order to determine which water outlets have elevated lead levels, with an average of 20% of the outlets tested above the recommended limit of 20 parts per billion (ppb). The schools must then close all outlets with lead levels over this limit while the school district and EPA decide which remediation techniques to use; these could range from installing filters on the water outlets and cleaning aerators to developing a water flushing plan. EPA will then retest the outlets and turn them back on only when the lead level is below 20 ppb.
Region 2 has implemented the 3Ts Program (which stands for training, testing and telling) in over 30 school districts throughout the New York and New Jersey area, each with between 3 and 80 schools in a district. The program administrator, Evangelia Palagian, attributes the success of the 3Ts program to the fact that it creates awareness from top to bottom, involving school administrators, community groups and parents. The New York Department of Health and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection became involved with the 3T Program in 2005, and will sometimes agree to do the water retesting in order to lift some of the financial burden for schools. Some of the local testing laboratories will also allot money specifically for 3Ts sampling. In addition, EPA will also reach out to the public water supplier to increase awareness and make sure that they are adhering to the Lead and Copper Rule, a 1991 EPA regulation on lead in drinking water.
Region 2 is currently working to bring the 3Ts Program to Head Start programs, because of the significant health concern posed by exposure to lead for children of the pre-kindergarten age.
Reducing Children’s High Blood Lead Levels in Puerto Rico
Lead-based paint is not as prevalent on the island of Puerto Rico as it is in the mainland United States, so when nurses in the Head Start program in Arecibo, Puerto Rico started to see elevated blood lead levels (BLL) in the children enrolled, it immediately struck them as out of the ordinary. All Puerto Rican children enrolled in Head Start and Medicaid programs are required to undergo BLL testing, but there is no formal BLL surveillance program for children. Although there is no safe BLL established for children, the Centers for Disease Control recommended a BLL of less than 5 micrograms/deciliter- and some children in Arecibo showed a BLL of over twice that level. Lead poisoning during childhood can lead to adverse effects to the neurological and nervous systems, and could cause learning difficulties that may last into adulthood.
The Puerto Rico Department of Health found that this group of children all had links to a battery recycling factory in the area, which was capable of producing between 30-60 tons of lead per day. They contacted the EPA, who conducted household environmental samples for lead testing, and found that employees at the battery recycling plant were bringing home the lead on their clothes, shoes and cars. To investigate further, the Puerto Rico Department of Health conducted a lead screening clinic. Thirty-six families were referred for case management, where the Department of Health helped families to identify the source of the lead exposure as well as to educate caregivers and pediatricians. They also began working with the two main blood testing laboratories to start island-wide surveillance that looks at past blood level testing from 2010 and forward, in order to identify children of parents who used to work at the factory to target for outreach.
Upon visiting the battery recycling facility, the Department of Health found a fine layer of lead dust on all the cars in the parking lot, which had become a pathway from the facility to the home. They also tested the inside of the cars, and found extremely high lead levels in floor mats on the driver’s side, an average of over 100,000 micrograms/sq. ft., going as high as 900,000 micrograms/sq. ft.; in comparison, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recommends less than 40 micrograms/sq. ft. Lead testing in homes found lead in entrance mats, couches and other porous objects. With the help of EPA Region 2, OSHA and the Puerto Rico Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Department of Health addressed the lead problem at the facility by instituting best work practices, industrial hygiene, moving parking offsite and creating a “decontamination line” where employees must shower and change clothes before leaving the facility.