Cleanlink News May 6 2009
Conn. Considers Green Cleaning In Schools
According to the Conneticut Post, leading lawmakers said Tuesday there would be no financial impact to pending legislation requiring local school systems to use "green" cleaning compounds and supplies to make the air and classroom environment healthier.
The bill, several years in the making, was prompted by supporters including Rep. Charles D. Clemons, D-Bridgeport, whose father was a city school custodian for more than 38 years.
Clemons; Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield; and Rep. Christopher Lyddy, D-Newtown, were among lawmakers at a Tuesday news conference who predicted that the bill requiring schools to adopt less-intrusive cleaning technology over two years will pass easily this year.
"This is an exciting day," said Clemons, a retired city firefighter. "A joyous day."
"One of the things we are doing here is we are breaking the myth that these green products, that these environmentally friendly ... products are more expensive," McKinney said. "It's simply not true."
The lawmakers said that over the last 10 years, green cleaning products with less harmful chemicals have come down in price and are now competitive with more traditional cleansers and floor-care products.
"We have today, in our schools, harsh and toxic chemicals that need not be there and we can replace them with safe, biodegradable alternatives that pose no danger whatsoever to children's health and that cost the same or less than the current products we're replacing," said Rep. Andrew M. Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, co-chairman of the legislative Education Committee.
"In moral terms, who could argue with the notion that we ought to be providing safer environments in school for our children," Fleischmann said.
Several school systems, including Derby and Torrington, have committed to green products, which have been found to signal attendance improvements in some schools throughout the United States.
The green products include environmentally preferable materials that are currently defined by the state Department of Administrative Services for state buildings.Under the legislation, the DAS standard would have to be met by state schools by July 1, 2011, for items including general-purpose cleaners, floor and glass cleaners and hand soaps.
McKinney credited the nonprofit Connecticut Foundation for Environmentally Safe Schools for pushing the bill; and Joellen Lawson, who retired from the Fairfield school system on a medical disability because of toxic mold exposure at the former McKinley School.
"Don't let it ever be said that one person can't make a change for the good in their community, in their state and in their nation," McKinney said, recalling the first time he met Lawson: McKinley School was closed because of deadly mold and bacteria. It was later torn down and rebuilt.
Lyddy said that a 2007 state law requiring the state to use green products set the scene for this year's expansion into public schools.
"The health and safety of our children, our teachers, is paramount," he said. "Children cannot learn and teachers cannot teach in an environment that is harmful to their health and well-being."
