![[logo] US EPA](http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
SC3 Video: Audio Transcript
Date: February 12, 2009
Narrator: In K through 12 schools across the nation, students and school personnel use chemicals every day to learn, to create and to maintain facilities. But when chemicals aren't carefully managed, they can be extremely dangerous. . .
Female News Anchor: A Hazmat crew is in Des Moines High School tonight following a chemical scare.
Male News Anchor: Here is the scene this evening from Chopper 13. Take a look. Crews have been there since late afternoon and their work will continue.
Maria Vickers: Experiences across the country have taught us that chemical mismanagement can cause school closures, accidental spills and exposure to students. In these situations, school districts face expenses in cleaning up these spills, sometimes turning into millions of dollars in expenses, not to mention the risk to human health for their students and for their staff.
Narrator: Just like clean drinking water and safe indoor air quality, the Environmental Protections Agency ranks responsible chemical management as a top school health priority. That’s why the US EPA, along with its federal and industry partners, has launched the Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign, or SC3.
Narrator: With help from SC3 education and partnership opportunities, K through 12 school administrators, teachers, industry partners, and even local emergency response teams can work together to:
- Remove inappropriate, outdated, unknown and unneeded chemicals;
- Prevent future chemical incidents in schools by promoting best practices in training, curriculum and policy change; and
- Raise awareness of chemical issues and promote sustainable solutions
Narrator: Every day, school administrators are faced with countless educational, health, and safety issues that affect students and staff. With so many issues to juggle on a daily basis, chemical management might not seem like a pressing concern.
Bruce Hayes: It’s easy to put the chemical issue in the background and it’s important to fight that temptation to do that. This is nationwide, there are literally tons and tons of chemicals that need to be removed in schools; they’re dangerous, they’re unknown in some cases. In some other cases they’re shock sensitive. These need to be cleaned out.
Stephen Morin: What we're talking about mostly are chemicals that may have been used many, many years ago and some that probably were never used. They may not even be in the chemistry stockrooms. We found some of the most dangerous things in basements and in crawl spaces.
Matthew Langenfeld: There may be acids and bases that are next to each other that may present an explosive risk. There may be explosive compounds, there may be hydrofluoric acid. We find cyanide occasionally next to acids and mercury in large volumes. There are a lot of toxic and hazardous chemicals that we find in schools.
Narrator: Schools can protect students, staff, and facilities from hazardous chemicals by forming a district chemical management team. This team might include administrators, teachers, maintenance personnel, medical personnel, and parents. Community partners such as industry groups, local government, and universities, can also be an important part of your chemical management team.
Narrator: Community partners, like industry, local and state government, colleges and universities, emergency managers, and insurance carriers, can collaborate with schools on everything from training and inventory to safe disposal and transportation of unneeded chemicals. Each school or school district’s chemical management team is unique, based on needs and available resources.
Narrator: In Ethete, Wyoming, the Wyoming Indian Schools worked with Roche Colorado Corporation, along with the Wyoming Department of Education and US EPA, to start a chemical management program. All of the partners believe that protecting children in the community is just the right thing to do.
Kevin Borud: I think it’s a great opportunity, coming from a company with world class chemical management to share that with schools, teachers, and ultimately students. It was really a valuable opportunity for me to use my expertise to help someone outside of the work environment.
Matthew Langenfeld: It’s very critical to have a corporate partnership with our tribal schools to get these inventories done appropriately and determine which chemicals are dangerous and hazardous so we can get those removed from the schools.
Bruce Hayes: There’s a synergy that happens when you get interested parties together. And that’s what has happened in Wyoming and that’s what we feel very good about. The partnership has worked well.
Robin Livingston: The hazards are not isolated just to the chemistry labs in the schools. There are maintenance chemicals that are used that can cause real safety hazards in the schools. And so we were able to bring that to light and identify some other hazards outside of the chemistry lab that needed to be dealt with.
Kassel Weeks: I never realized just how dangerous these chemicals are. It’s one of the things that really, really stirs emotions in me when I think about it. The EPA program, this chemical cleanout, I think it’s very good. I think it’s excellent the cooperation that we’ve had on the reservation with this program.
Narrator: Whether your school is just starting or is refining an existing chemical management program, SC3 can help. Start by considering these 5 steps:
- Assess the Situation and Identify Your School’s Program Goals
- Define Your School’s Program Components
- Create & Communicate Your School’s Program Message
- Implement Your School’s Program, and maintaining an accurate inventory of all chemicals is essential to implementing and sustaining a program.
- Sustain Your School’s Chemical Management Program
Narrator: Each school’s chemical management program is unique, but these five steps are common to successful SC3 programs. Taking action in these five areas will make a difference to student and staff safety.
Narrator: In the Ocean State, the Rhode Island Chemical Safe Schools Committee helps school districts reduce the risks associated with laboratory chemicals, and promotes best practices for safe chemical storage, use, management and disposal.
Peter Mclaren: I'm incredibly proud to be part of this committee because of the work it's done. When you have all of those agencies and those institutions working together, it's really powerful because they all bring their expertise. They all bring their lens, so to speak, of how they're looking at this issue of safety to the table.
Narrator: The Committee has created a manual, generated a list of banned chemicals in schools, reviewed school chemical inventories, offers training to schools and secures grants. In 2004, grants of about $2,500 each to eight Rhode Island schools resulted in the removal of almost 900 pounds of chemicals. The more than 200 specific chemicals included toxic metals, explosives, solvents, acids and bases.
Stephen Morin: I think where we've really been able to add value is in developing training programs for high school teachers to try and raise awareness and to get at solving some of the problems. That's one of the great things about this group.
Janet Miele: The training we went to actually had us sorting chemicals by families and classes and we talked about how they had to be stored and it just refreshes our memory, with more chemicals coming on the scene, things that we can and can't use in schools safely. It just gives us more information to do our job.
Narrator: The Committee also helps Rhode Island schools connect with local resources including emergency planning committees and fire departments.
Steven Preston: Your fire service brings a wealth of information and experience with it. It's much easier for me to know what is where and how much is stored where, prior to an incident occurring. We try to keep the inventory down very low and that way the product doesn't go bad and we don't have excess material sitting around.
Narrator: To help schools establish systems and protocols, the Committee also requires that each school assign a Chemical Hygiene Officer to control inventory.
Narrator: Teachers submit requests for the next day’s lab, which are pulled by the Chemical Hygiene Officer from a secured inventory, prepared, then picked up by the teacher along with the chemicals’ Materials Safety Data Sheets.
Kathleen Beebe: To know you have somebody on your staff that's responsible for safety just takes one piece of the nervousness of your day away. And then they bring them back to me in a timely fashion. It would be such a nightmare with 10 different classrooms to have chemicals at the end of the day left in different places, under tables, in closets, wherever.
Narrator: By creating teams and engaging partners with a broad range of expertise and available resources, Rhode Island schools serve as a model for other states.
Narrator: Schools can achieve sustained success by looking for long-term solutions, including chemical management beyond the chemistry classroom. Potential chemical hazards are found in biology classes, vocational and trade shops, visual arts studios and maintenance areas, swimming pools, cafeterias, nurses’ offices, school grounds and athletic fields.
Narrator: When it comes to making sustainable changes, schools have plenty of options to choose from. Some schools now practice micro-scale chemistry, which is safer, reduces waste, and lowers costs. Many schools are also moving away from formaldehyde, which is a carcinogen, to less hazardous preservers for laboratory specimens.
Narrator: No matter how a school chooses to improve its chemical management program, SC3 can help. The SC3 Web site has a wealth of information and experts you can contact to get your team moving. Because, when it comes to student and staff safety, it’s never too early to take action.
Robin Livingston: Companies who participate in the school chemical clean out campaign program really benefit by building on their sustainability program, the support for responsible care program and just really strengthening the community outreach programs at their facilities. This experience has been incredibly positive and valuable for our company both on a company level and just on a personal level for everyone who’s been involved.
Janet Miele: If I can do things that make my students' environment safer regardless of what the budget is and do my best practices as well as I can, and share it with the other teachers not only in the science department, in the building - I think that's an important mission as a science educator.
Bruce Hayes: The real winners are the kids. Those are the ones that are winning because we’re getting environments that are far safer. And, of course, the parents’ peace of mind, that’s an important part of it too. They’re the winners as well.