Two U-46 classroom trailers' formaldehyde levels test normal
Two trailers used for classrooms in Bartlett have tested normal for formaldehyde levels, Elgin Area School District U-46 said Monday.
Park Ridge-based Environ International Corp. found formaldehyde concentrations between 1 part per billion and 4.7 parts per billion in Nature Ridge Elementary School's two trailers.
Such concentration levels are considered acceptable, said David Regelbrugge, the industrial hygienist and senior manager at Environ who led the testing.
"Normal urban backgrounds generally range from 0.8 to 6.8 parts per billion," Regelbrugge said. "This was well within the limit."
Using a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health test, Environ officials drew classroom air through an absorbent silica gel tube for about five hours, Regelbrugge said. Students were not in the classroom at the time of the testing.
Samples were taken from the middle of each classroom about 4 to 5 feet above the floor. Each test was conducted "as if kids would have been there," Regelbrugge said. "We wanted to simulate what kids were breathing during a normal day."
Temperature was kept about 70 degrees with ventilation systems running. Windows and doors were kept closed, he said.
Nature Ridge's trailers were tested in mid-March. During spring break last week, the firm took samples of the other 62 trailers in use throughout the district.
Those results should be ready in two to three weeks, Regelbrugge said.
U-46 first said it would test all mobile classrooms last month, after a Bartlett parent petitioned the school board to check trailers for noxious fumes.
Beverly Jaszczurowski, the mother of a Nature Ridge kindergartner, cited a study released Feb. 14 by the Centers for Disease Control.
The study found higher-than-typical indoor levels of formaldehyde in travel trailers and mobile homes provided to displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Long-term exposure to higher levels have been linked to an increased risk of cancer and respiratory illness, the study said.
Jaszczurowski suggested students attending class in mobile units for upward of six hours a day could suffer similar health effects as those in Katrina trailers.
"There are serious long-term effects of kids breathing in formaldehyde. … It's not healthy for anyone. It's just not safe," she told the board.
The specific formaldehyde concentration in each mobile classroom will be announced after testing of all mobile classrooms has been completed, district spokesman Tony Sanders said.
The approximate cost for the testing is $60,000 to 80,000.
"I'm glad that they're within what somebody says is a safe level," Jaszczurowski said Monday upon hearing the test results.
"But I guess on a conceptual level I still have some concerns," Jaszczurowski said. "How much do levels fluctuate from day to day and season to season? I'm still not sure it's 100 percent safe."