Anderson Ayana R, Eure Taniece R, Orr Maureen F, Kolbe Lloyd J, Woolf Alan
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
University of Georgia, College of Public Health.
J Environ Health. 2017 Nov;80(4):E1-E7.
Children are considered to be a vulnerabletion when it comes to exposures to hazardous substances. Schools, where children spend about one third of their day, are expected to be a safe environment. Yet, there are many hazardous substances in schools that can be inadvertently or intentionally released and harm the health of students and teachers alike. The purpose of this analysis is to characterize acute chemical release incidents in school settings and identify prevention practices. The acute chemical incident surveillance programs of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) captured 24,748 acute chemical release incidents from 14 states that participated during 2008-2013. We examined 335 of these incidents that occurred at schools. While only 1.3% ( = 335) of all chemical incidents reported to ATSDR occurred in schools, these incidents represented a larger part of the total impacts, including 8.5% of incidents with persons injured, 5.7% of evacuations ordered, and 31.1% of people evacuated. Natural gas (21.8%) and mercury (18.2%) were the chemicals most frequently released. Collecting and analyzing data on acute school chemical releases allows stakeholders to target prevention initiatives and provide a school environment safe from these chemical exposures.
在接触有害物质方面，儿童被视为弱势群体。学校是孩子们一天中大约三分之一时间所在的地方，理应是一个安全的环境。然而，学校里存在许多有害物质，可能会意外或故意释放出来，对学生和教师的健康造成危害。本分析的目的是描述学校环境中的急性化学物质释放事件，并确定预防措施。有毒物质和疾病登记署（ATSDR）的急性化学事件监测项目在2008 - 2013年期间从14个参与州捕获了24,748起急性化学物质释放事件。我们研究了其中发生在学校的335起事件。虽然向ATSDR报告的所有化学事件中只有1.3%（即335起）发生在学校，但这些事件在总影响中占了更大比例，包括8.5%的有人受伤事件、5.7%的下令疏散事件以及31.1%的被疏散人员。天然气（21.8%）和汞（18.2%）是最常释放的化学物质。收集和分析学校急性化学物质释放的数据，使利益相关者能够针对预防举措，提供一个免受这些化学物质暴露影响的学校环境。
