NYSUT member Dianne Nurre, a math intervention teacher at Myers Corners Elementary School in the Wappingers Central School District, has been involved with health and safety issues for many years, first at her school and now as a member of the district-wide health and safety committee.
“Indoor air quality issues have been a big part of the conversation in our health and safety committee, and I want to see what more I can learn about it,” said Nurre, a member of the Wappingers Congress of Teachers.
In early November, Nurre attended the state Department of Health’s School Environmental Health Conference. The free event, held in Kingston, brought together nurses, teachers, facilities managers, school administrators and others to engage with colleagues and learn about how to make school buildings safer places for students to learn and for staff to work.
The focus of this year’s conference was indoor air quality and featured discussions on the science of cleaner indoor air, the effect of scents and fragrances on health and fire safety, and a hands-on demonstration of how to build a Corsi-Rosenthal box — a low-budget air-cleaning device that can be made using commonly available materials like a box fan and air filters.
A top takeaway for Nurre was how interconnected environmental health issues are within a school’s ecosystem.
“I learned a lot during a session on safer science and indoor air quality led by the Laboratory Safety Institute,” said Nurre. “The presenters shared recommendations for shifts to more sustainable chemicals, proper management of stockrooms and the importance of training and professional development to help schools stay healthy.”
Nurre, who co-founded her local health and safety committee, appreciated the conference’s structure and the variety of topics covered. “There were concurrent sessions over the course of the day so I could attend the sessions that were most relevant to my local.”
The state hosts the free School Environmental Health Conference annually and offers related information and resources to schools year-round in a non-regulatory capacity. Other topics covered at this year’s event included radon testing and mitigation, pest management, energy efficient building construction, funding for clean transportation, and the recently enacted Education Law 409-n related to extreme temperatures in schools.
To learn more about school environmental health issues and the resources available to address them, sign up for NYSUT’s Health and Safety Bulletin at: nysut.cc/HSnewsletter.