Indoor Air Quality Symposium.Over 350 school administrators, teachers, nurses, parents, facilities personnel, city and county mangers and public health officials met in Washington, D.C., in August to learn how to create healthier indoor air quality Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) deals with the content of interior air that could affect health and comfort of building occupants. The IAQ may be compromised by microbial contaminants (mold, bacteria), chemicals (such as carbon monoxide, radon), allergens, or any mass or energy stressor , in school buildings. The Indoor Air Quality Tools For Schools (TfS) National Symposium was sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and and a number of national associations, including AASA AASA American Association of School Administrators AASA Asian American Student Association AASA Association of Academies of Sciences in Asia AASA Aging and Adult Services Administration AASA Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army , committed to improving indoor air quality in the nation's schools. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the federal government, an estimated 50 percent of the nation's schools have indoor air quality concerns. Nearly 1 in 13 school-aged child has asthma; poor indoor air quality is often cited as a contributing factor. In 1996, the EPA EPA eicosapentaenoic acid. EPA abbr. eicosapentaenoic acid EPA, n.pr See acid, eicosapentaenoic. EPA, n. developed the TfS kit, a free and easy-to-use reference to help schools identify; resolve and prevent indoor air quality problems. To date, more than 5,000 schools and school districts have used the kit to implement commonsense com·mon·sense adj. Having or exhibiting native good judgment: "commonsense scholarship on the foibles and oversights of a genius" Times Literary Supplement. solutions for indoor air quality problems using little or no additional budget money. At the symposium, schools from across the nation were honored for their successful implementation of the TfS kit, including nine districts whose superintendents are AASA members. More information on the symposium, the TfS kit and the AASA award winners is available at www.aasa.org. AASA has just been awarded a 5-year, $1-million grant from the Centers for Disease Control to build the capacity of state and local health and education departments to reduce asthma among youth. |
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