Business News

Unhealthy Schools Legislation Signed

In January of 2002, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, making child environmental health and safety a top priority for the next several years.

Certain portions of the law require the U.S. Department of Education to study the effects of decayed buildings on child health and to report those findings, along with possible solutions, to Congress.

Specifically targeted are indoor air quality issues, such as identifying and reporting pesticides, molds and other airborne allergens.

The law also gives the Department of Education the authority to set up state-based green-building programs for the neediest schools.

"This is the biggest boost to ‘indoor environments’ in a decade," says Claire Barnett, executive director of Healthy Schools Network. "Children spend 90 percent of their time indoors. And the great indoors is always the dirtier, more crowded and more polluted than the great out of doors, especially in densely occupied, poorly maintained schools."

For more information visit the Healthy Schools Network.

CalSurance Associates, Inc. has launched a pollution liability program targeting healthcare facilities. This coverage features on-site cleanup costs, third-party environmental liability and legal defense.

Environmental incidents in hospitals are capable of contaminating property, spreading infectious disease and can cause serious bodily injury, with grave financial consequences.

Many healthcare organizations are either unaware of their environmental exposures, unaware of the liability assumed by leases or they mistakenly believe these exposures are covered under their current property and casualty program.

The program offers coverage for specific locations such as doctor’s offices, dentist’s offices, blood banks, emergency healthcare clinics, ambulatory healthcare clinics, long-term care facilities, hospitals, veterinarian offices, dialysis clinics and funeral homes.

For more information on the program, visit CalSurance’s website.

The formation of an International Window Cleaner Certification Institute (IWCCI) was announced in January, at the International Window Cleaners Association (IWCA) convention in Reno, Nevada.

The IWCCI is an offshoot of the IWCA and is a not-for-profit organization formed to provide a safety certification program for the window cleaning industry.

The Institute will offer a certification program for window cleaners so they can acquire the knowledge and skills for safe professional practice in compliance with recently established national safety standard I-14.1, developed by the IWCA and approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in late 2001.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is withdrawing an inactive indoor air quality regulation proposed in 1994.

The proposed regulation addressed the risk posed to employees by environmental tobacco smoke and other factors contributing to poor indoor air quality. It also proposed that all employers implement a plan to address IAQ problems by identifying controls for specific contaminants and their sources, such as microbial contamination, pesticides, cleaning chemicals and other hazardous chemicals used in the workplace.

In addition, employers would have had to keep a written record of employee complaints or signs of symptoms that may be related to building-related illness. The record was to list information about the illness reported, how many employees were affected, complaint dates and the action taken by the employer to correct the source of the problem.

The decision to withdraw the proposed regulation was reached with the support of several anti-smoking public health groups including the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights and the campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

In the years since the proposal was issued, a great many state and local governments and private employers have taken action to curtail smoking in public areas and in workplaces, making that portion of the rule unnecessary.

"This action takes the positive step of setting aside what has become a contentious and unproductive effort," says John Henshaw, assistant secretary of OSHA. "Of course, this action does not preclude future agency action if the need arises."

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids backed Henshaw’s statement by stating, "The urgency for federal action that existed when the rule making began has been changed by the actions of local communities, private employers and the states."