What empirical points in this text -- dates, organization, laws, policies, etc -- will be important to your research?

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Margaret Tebbe's picture
Margaret Tebbe
May 7, 2022
In response to:
Foundations for Student Success: How School Buildings Influence Student Health, Thinking and Performance
  • Flame retardant chemicals
    • Migrate off of products and into air/dust
    • Many are endocrine disruptors, interfere with the reproductive system and thyroid
  • Stain repellent chemicals
    • Polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFASs) or polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs)
    • Enter air, dust, and drinking water
    • 6 million US residents have blood PFAS concentrations over EPA limit
    • Associated with cancer, thyroid disease, immunotoxicity, reduced immune response to childhood immunizations
  • Phthalates
    • Enter air and dust
    • Associated with asthma and allergies
  • Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)
    • Environmentally persistent pollutant, endocrine disruptor, and probable carcinogen
    • No longer used, but remain in estimated 25,000 US schools
    • Prenatal exposure may affect height, weight, head circumference, and body size at puberty
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Margaret Tebbe's picture
Margaret Tebbe
May 7, 2022
In response to:
Foundations for Student Success: How School Buildings Influence Student Health, Thinking and Performance
  • Ventilation & air quality:
    • Children breathe more air than adults relative to their body size
  • Water quality:
    • Contaminants like lead have greater effects on cognitive development and behavior of children than adults
  • Thermal comfort
    • Current models for thermal comfort are based on adults and do not predict children's comfort levels
    • Children are more susceptible to the effects of heat stress
    • Children's clothing and activity levels (major determinants of thermal comfort) are distinct from adults
  • Lighting and views
    • Children have larger pupils than adults
    • Children have greater light-induced melatonin suppression--their Circadian rhythms are more susceptible to manipulation
  • Noise
    • Children under 15 are more sensitive to difficult listening conditions because they are still developing mature language skills
    • Children need a greater signal-to-noise ratio in order to understand language
    • Memory and attention development are sensitive to chronic noise exposure
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Margaret Tebbe's picture
Margaret Tebbe
May 5, 2022
In response to:
Foundations for Student Success: How School Buildings Influence Student Health, Thinking and Performance
  • Ventilation:
    • 15 cubic feet of outside air per person or 5 liters per person per second
    • Carbon dioxide concentrations below 1000 ppm
  • Water quality:
  • Thermal health
    • Indoor temperatures between 68 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit
  • Lighting
    • Minimum 350 lux, up to 1000 lux
    • LED instead of fluorescent lighting
  • Noise
    • Maximum background noise: 35 dB
    • Maximum reverbration time: 0.6-0.7 seconds
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Margaret Tebbe's picture
Margaret Tebbe
May 5, 2022
In response to:
Foundations for Student Success: How School Buildings Influence Student Health, Thinking and Performance
  • Public schools are the second largest sector of US public infrastructure spending (after highways) - investment falls $46 billion short annually
  • 60,000 schools, or 46% of public schools, have significant environmental hazards
  • Students will spend 15,600 hours inside a school during K-12 education
  • Schools are four times as densely populated as offices
  • Childhood asthma accoutns for 13.8 million missed school days each year
  • 31% of schools use portable classrooms
  • Average school building in the US has a lifespan of 50 years, many are older than this
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