Ontario won't fix the toxic air in schools

Publication: The Hamilton Spectator

Author: FLANNERY DEAN FLANNERY DEAN IS A HAMILTONBASED FREELANCE REPORTER, WRITER AND EDITOR.

At his elementary school last week, my son learned about wildfires. He learned that the smoke from fires now burning in Western Canada travels, affecting the air in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, not to mention Ontario. He learned that the spooky red sunsets that mark wildfire season reflect not a changing sun but a changed atmosphere, thanks to smoke particles. He was amazed to learn that wildfire smoke even makes its way to Europe, crossing the Atlantic in a plume.

Those lessons have hit home as the air quality in Ontario has worsened. Last Friday, Toronto had the fourth worst air quality of any major city in the world. In Windsor, the poor air quality exceeded Environment Canada's rating system, reaching “10plus” out of 10.

Wildfire smoke contains harmful particulate matter — tiny particles that can affect the lungs, heart and brain when inhaled. These particles are what make the smoke such a threat to public health, and Canadians are increasingly being exposed to them. Kids are particularly vulnerable, because they breathe faster than adults and more often through their mouths.

Protecting kids from toxic air means more than keeping them indoors on hazy days. It demands that we pay attention to the air they breathe at school, too. Wildfire smoke doesn't just cross borders and oceans; its toxic particulate matter also finds its way through walls and windows. Yet two million kids in Ontario sat in classrooms this year, and as the air quality deteriorated around them, governments and school boards did little to improve it.

Prior to COVID19, it wouldn't have occurred to me to wonder what the air was like in my kid's school. I took it for granted that when September came around, he would bring home a handful of viruses that we would experience together on a sliding scale of misery. That culture of illness is baked into the schoolyear, and no parent can escape it. But complacency about classroom air quality contributes to our woe — and now with measles cases on the rise, it's important to ask whether housing kids in aging buildings with lax standards of air quality isn't setting them up to struggle needlessly.

I've been surprised to discover that we have a fairly basic standard for indoor air quality in schools. When I investigated the Ford government's investment in indoor air quality during the pandemic, one expert told me Ontario does recommend school boards meet an industry standard, but it was designed primarily to ensure classrooms don't smell bad. And it's not even mandated, merely recommended and managed with little oversight.

There are better standards we can adopt. Research during the pandemic produced recommendations for a higher indoor air quality standard, one designed to support reductions in viral transmission through improved ventilation and purification systems. There are also expert informed protocols for supporting better indoor air during periods of hazardous wildfire smoke.

Yes, improved ventilation would require massive investments in public education that would take time to produce measurable results. But the benefits of doing more for indoor air quality in schools could be life altering, and studies suggest students learn better in well ventilated spaces.

Meanwhile, with kids now largely unprotected from various public health hazards in the classroom, the province could support school boards in implementing infection policies, smaller class sizes and the use of portable air filters and N95 masks during times of particularly low air quality or high viral infection rates.

In an ideal world, kids wouldn't be facing a future of increased exposure to known threats such as wildfire smoke, COVID19 and measles. They also wouldn't be conveniently excluded from the mainstream of public health concerns because acknowledging their vulnerability would demand investment. But in the world we live in now, kids shouldn't have to bear the burden of apathy as well as smoke and illness.

It's our job to be kids' gatekeepers and guardians, committed to putting our substantial knowledge of how to protect them into practice. That's our lesson to learn, and we shouldn't need another reminder.