• Study: Classroom Ventilation Affects Student Performance
• The Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council Launches the Green Classroom Professional Certificate
• Asthma and Indoor Air Quality in Schools
• Bed Bugs with MRSA in Chicago
• Video: IAQ School Walkthrough - Classrooms

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn

• Air
• Cleaning science
• Green Cleaning
• Indoor Environmental Quality
• Process Cleaning for Healthy Schools (PCHS)
• Schools

Ads, ad links, products and content on this page are not necessarily endorsed by these organizations.

For as long as there have been classrooms, there have been teachers bringing their own furniture and other items into them.  These are brought in mostly to create a warm homey environment within the classroom.  These items, however, are often used furniture brought from home because they have outlived their usefulness there.  Unfortunately, fleecy items such as upholstered couches and chairs, rugs, and bean bag chairs harbor dust mites, pet dander, and other contaminants that can adversely affect classroom environmental quality.  Health professionals refer to these items as “Asthma Trigger Reservoirs” because they are known to be a cause of asthma attacks.  As asthma rates have doubled among students in the last twenty years, and nationally more than fourteen million absences in schools were attributed to asthma last year, teachers are putting more and more students with asthma at unnecessary risk by having these items in classrooms.  Because these furnishings often raise the particulate levels in classrooms, there will also be an adverse effect on the health of students without asthma.  Whether the furniture is old or new, the fabrics or fleece-like materials will continue to absorb dust and other particulate matter from the classroom environment and disperse it later when disturbed.  A couch, like the Trojan Horse, may appear to be a welcome addition.  As the citizens of Troy discovered, the horse (your couch), may also lead to extremely bad consequences.

Not only do couches and other personal items cause health problems because of the material they consist of and the particulate matter they harbor, they also obstruct the cleaning of classrooms.  Due to a reduced custodial staff, a custodian may only have about six minutes to vacuum a classroom.  With only standard furniture in the room, it is barely possible to thoroughly vacuum a classroom in the time allowed.  When personal furniture is added, teachers are increasing the Degree of Obstruction.   And since custodians don’t have the time to thoroughly vacuum a highly obstructed classroom in the time allowed, such a classroom is not vacuumed as well as an unobstructed classroom, and therefore a classroom with personal furniture doesn’t get cleaned as well as a classroom without.  So one can see that these personal items are in effect Weapons of Class Obstruction and are a major contributor to poor indoor environmental quality.

There are many factors in our schools that can adversely affect indoor environmental quality such as leaky roofs, broken heating systems, and others that may require a major effort and scarce school district resources to fix.  Removing personal items such as chairs and couches costs nothing and will improve classroom environmental quality.  When I find myself running into this furniture with my vacuum I think of Laocoon striking the Trojan Horse with his spear and warning his fellow Trojans to beware of Greeks bearing gifts.  I only hope that I can be more successful with my warning than he.

The Healthy Facilities Institute provides the information on HealthyFaciltiesInstitute.com as a free service to the public.

While an effort is made to ensure the quality of the content and credibility of sources listed on this site, HFI provides no warranty - expressed or implied - and assumes no legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, product or process disclosed on or in conjunction with the site. The views and opinions of the authors or originators expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of HFI: its principals, executives, board members, advisors or affiliates.