U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko held a roundtable conversation about air quality in school buildings on Wednesday at Giffen Memorial Elementary School.
Giffen is one of a handful of local schools to benefit from a University at Albany study of air quality funded by the EPA. There is a sensor inside the school measuring air quality, and there are outdoor sensors monitoring the surrounding South End neighborhood. UAlbany started collecting data in August.
Tonko has introduced a bill in Congress giving the Environmental Protection Agency the authority and resources to regularly study indoor air quality in schools and child care facilities. The bill, H.R. 9131, also supports development of technical assistance, guidance and best practices to improve indoor air quality in those places.
UAlbany researcher Md. Aynul Bari took part in Wednesday’s discussion, which included Superintendent Joseph Hochreiter; Giffen parent Raquel Ortiz; district physician Laura Staff, MD; district health services coordinator Suzanne McCarthy; and teachers’ union president Laura Franz.
Also taking part in the roundtable were representatives from the Healthy Schools Network and New York State PTA, along with a researcher from RPI.
October is both National Children’s Health Month and National Healthy Lung Month.
