Children's health: schools and nurseries in France still too exposed to pollutants
School in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, near Nantes, on May 12, 2020 (Illustration image).
REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
This is often the blind spot of environmental struggles.
Environmental degradation has a significant impact on our health.
The High Council for Public Health has examined 15 years of health-environment plans implemented by the various governments in France in order to draw lessons.
During a seminar before the Ministries of Health and Ecological Transition, doctors and experts from this independent body drew the attention of decision-makers, in particular to the need to reduce air pollution inside schools and nurseries.
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Sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, fine particles: since 2006, France has reduced air pollution.
But not enough in places that welcome children, warns the
High Council for Public Health
.
And yet nurseries and schools are the places where children live most often after housing.
The quality of the air in these spaces is therefore essential for their health, but also for the quality of their learning.
A double pollution
Within the institution, Fabien Squinazi chairs the Commission on environmental risks.
"
The child is exposed to double pollution, that which comes from outside due to the proximity of car traffic, but also pollutants emitted inside by furniture, school supplies, cleaning products which will attack his respiratory tract
, ”he explains at the microphone of
Lucile Gimbert
of the Science department.
In Saint-Ouen, for example, with the financial support of the participatory budget of the Ile-de-France region,
air purifiers by electrofiltration
were tested for several months.
The Indoor Air Quality Observatory carried out an exploratory study aimed at characterizing the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and aldehydes from products related to school activities and cleaning products used in classrooms. class.
© Ademe
In 2017, a
study by the Indoor Air Quality Observatory conducted in 2013 – 2017
in a representative sample of 301 nursery and elementary schools revealed that the carcinogenic benzene exceeded regulatory levels in 10% of classrooms.
Since the beginning of January 2023, new regulations require the implementation of action plans to reduce children's exposure to pollutants.
At the same time, measurements of CO2, an indicator of air renewal in premises, reveal that 84% of elementary schools and 51% of nursery schools have at least one classroom with high air containment.
First solution, ventilate: “
Opening a window regularly means driving out all indoor pollutants.
If there is a person who is sick, opening the window will also evacuate the infectious agents
”.
Experts also recommend removing surrounding sources of pollution by creating pedestrian zones around schools, reducing industrial smoke or even limiting the spreading of pesticides near establishments welcoming children.
Associations mobilize
Regularly associations for the defense of the environment and parents of students on the risks to the health of children from air pollution.
This was the case in Paris and the inner suburbs in October 2022 at the initiative of a collective.
Eight schools were involved.
or again in May last year when parents and teachers mobilized in front of 15 Parisian schools to ask for more “streets for schools”, as part of the European
Streets for kids
movement which mobilizes nearly 400 schools in 12 countries.
► To read also: Danone sued by NGOs for its plastic pollution
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