ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT PROTOCOLS FOR HOMES, SCHOOLS, AND CHILD CARE BH Turk 1∗ , D Hadlich 1 , T Brennan 2 , A Duggan 3 , R Shaughnessy 4 , M Vogel 5 , A Abend 6 , S Galbraith 7 , S Hills 8 and M Miller 9 1 Mountain West Technical Associates, Santa Fe, NM, USA 2 Camroden Associates, Westmoreland, NY, USA 3 American Lung Association of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA 4 Center for Environmental Research and Technology, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USA 5 Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, USA 6 Architect, Baltimore, MD, USA 7 Cogito Technical Services, Fayetteville, NY, USA 8 Communications Design Services, Burke, VA, USA 9 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6, Dallas, TX, USA ABSTRACT Assessment protocol and training program modules have been developed for environmental health and safety hazards found in occupied spaces and near outdoor areas where children spend most of their time: home, school, and child care. The home and child care modules contain customizable assessment checklists, mitigation action plans that emphasize low-cost and no-cost approaches, fact sheet handouts, and extensive training and reference materials. The assessment covers outdoor sources, tobacco smoking, mold and moisture, lead, dust, other common indoor air contaminants, and other hazards. The school module is based on the U.S. EPA’s IAQ Tools for Schools, but adds supplemental checklists and materials on asthma, mold and moisture, air cleaning, cleaning management, and other topic areas. There is a special focus on allergy and asthma-related conditions. Dozens of Albuquerque homes and over 1400 New Mexico child care providers have had environmental assessments performed or received training using these materials. INDEX TERMS Environmental assessments, Children, Homes, Schools, Child care INTRODUCTION The majority of children’s time is spent in indoor and near-outdoor environments that often contain a wide and increasing variety of environmental hazards with the potential for causing health-damaging exposures. Children are uniquely at risk from environmental hazards in a number of ways (Bates, 1995; Bearer, 1995): • children’s vital systems are in a dynamic state of development even after birth, and therefore more vulnerable to environmental exposures, • children drink, eat and breathe proportionally more than adults, therefore endure more exposure to environmental contaminants, and • children’s normal developmental behaviors, such as hand to mouth activities and crawling on floors and the ground increases their exposure to environmental hazards. ∗ Contact author email: turkmwta@aol.com Proceedings: Indoor Air 2002 166