ABOUT Chemical Awareness in Schools

Chemical Awareness in Schools is a non-profit community network, aiming to raise awareness of hazardous chemicals in children's environments, and provide information about safer alternatives to a range of commonly used chemical-based products.

Why is this such an important issue?
The chemical revolution over the last five decades has involved the release of millions of tonnes of toxic chemicals into the environment - pest and weed control chemicals, plastics, cleaning agents, industrial solvents, fragrances and perfumes, and countless other petro-chemical derivatives. Many of the 70,000 synthetic chemicals we are likely to encounter in the industrialised world are carcinogens, neuro-toxins and endocrine disruptors. Little is known about even the basic toxicity of the 3000 most commonly used chemicals, and almost no data is available on what effects they have when they interact in our indoor and outdoor environments. In the Western diet, thousands of chemicals are used in food processing alone.

How does it affect children in particular?
Children are about six times more vulnerable to chemical toxicity than adults. Not only do they interact more readily with their environment by exploring it with hands and mouths, they also breathe faster than adults, absorbing more chemicals per body weight. From the womb all the way to the school playground, their developing bodies are encountering increasing toxicity. Their central nervous systems (the brain) and their endocrine systems (immunity, growth, emotions) are struggling to develop according to the normal genetic blueprint in a world without meaningful controls over toxic chemicals.

What are the most common sources of exposure?
Children are exposed to toxic chemicals by many routes - commonly used products such as No-pest strips, pet collars, and shampoos (for pets, and in some cases for the children themselves, for head lice) contain hazardous pest control chemicals. The routine use of chemicals against rodents, insects, funguses, and weeds in homes, schools, playgrounds, and gardens is a major source of exposure. Soft toys have been shown to absorb and retain toxic organophosphates such as chlorpyrifos. Cleaning products, perfumes and fragrances, dry cleaned clothes, carpets, furnishings, building materials, paint, art and craft materials, glues and adhesives, classroom stationery, inks and dyes, plastics and plastic toys, soft plastic linings in food and drink packaging, and food itself….. we are living in a chemical age!

Another source of exposure is water. A new study links the interaction of pest control and agricultural chemicals in tap water to central nervous system and thyroid disorders such as attention deficit and/or hyperactivity disorders, aggressive behaviour and depression in children. The children not only drink tap water, they also bathe and shower in it, thus inhaling small quantities of toxic chemicals and absorbing them through the skin.

How else does chemical exposure harm children's health?
Cancers are now the second leading cause of death among children (after accidents). Two kinds of childhood cancers account for 50% of all cases: leukemias (cancers of the blood-forming organs), and brain cancers. Leukemias seem particularly likely to strike children younger than age two, and brain tumors occur most often in children younger than age six. Several studies have shown a link between childhood cancers (such as leukemias, lymphomas, neuroblastomas, and brain cancers) and pest control chemicals in recent years.

How can we reduce children's exposure to chemicals?
According to a recent CSIRO report, Australia has one of the worst records in the world on indoor air quality, and clearly needs to improve it. In Australia, one in four children suffers from breathing disorders such as asthma or bronchitis. Our indoor air is estimated to be about twenty times more polluted than the outside air. Our workplaces, schools and homes are often badly designed & ventilated, and are furnished, painted and cleaned with products that contain hazardous chemicals. Dust mites & unflued gas heaters contribute to the problem. The newly constructed Sydney Olympic venues have a rigorous set of guidelines for indoor air quality, to comply with international best practice standards for the athletes. Our children deserve equal best practice in their workplaces!

We also need to re-evaluate our approach to pest and weed control. Integrated pest management is an ecologically-based pest control strategy. It involves detailed assessment of pest populations, knowledge of their life and/or reproductive cycles and understanding of the conditions under which they proliferate. To be effective, IPM requires on-going monitoring and assessment of the pest control strategies used. The strategy uses complementary techniques (physical, cultural, biological, educational and chemical) with a priority on non-chemical control methods. Chemical methods, where appropriate, are carefully selected for minimum hazard.

Chemical sensitivity is a disabling disease with significant implications for children.
It is no longer reasonable to assume that toxic pollution will not find its way into children and cause illness. Environmentally-linked disease is on the rise, affecting our children's health, their development, their ability to learn and their general well-being. Between 15 and 30% of the population suffer ill health from exposure to toxic chemicals. They need help and recognition, particularly children, suffering daily exposure at school or preschool.

We need National Legislation and Non-toxic Guidelines for Children's Workplaces Schools and preschools are children's workplaces. They are required by law to spend 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 13 years of their early lives, at school. It is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that their environments are safe, healthy places to be.

CAS is aiming to inform parents, schools, government departments and children themselves, about the dangers of toxic chemicals. We are advocating the enactment of national legislation which acknowledges chemical sensitivity as a disability, and ensures that safe, non-toxic guidelines are implemented in all children's environments.