Peace and Environment News * June 1995

UV Protection Urged for Schoolchildren

by Marie Wellman

One of many pleasant sights is watching children playing outdoors: kids having fun with the sights, sounds and smells in fields and forests. Kids sharing with friends the joys of just "plain" playing in the schoolyard.

While we recognize the serious negative effects of ozone depletion, we also recognize that personal discovery and growth are enhanced outside the four walls of a classroom. Mindful of this, we need to protect children in the schoolyard and beyond from increasing UV-B radiation.

In the spring of 1993 the Ottawa Board of Education (OBE) Advisory Committee on the Environment distributed to all OBE students the Get Sun Smart flyer, which explains the skin-saving slogan Slip Slap Slop. Did it have an effect? We hope.

The following spring, taking a more aggressive approach, we presented the following statement to our Board of Trustees:

Whereas, in recognition of serious negative effects of ozone depletion, there is a need to protect children and staff in the schoolyard from increasing UV-B radiation;
Be it resolved:

1. That the Board require that all children, teachers and staff be appropriately clothed for outdoor activities, e.g. wide-brimmed hats, long-sleeved shirts and long pants; and
2. That for the long term the Board, with the help of the Advisory Committee on the Environment, devise and implement a policy for educating staff, students and parents on the negative health effects of ozone depletion and for protecting children from UV-B radiation in the schoolyard.

The strategy should include:

• education for administrators, teachers, students and parents;
• shade audits of all schoolyards to identify existing shaded areas and the potential for creating additional shade;
• a plan of action to provide shade trees around high-use areas such as sand boxes, play structures, and spectator areas for sports;
• requirements for appropriate clothing for outdoor activities, including wide-brimmed hats, long-sleeved shirts and long pants;
• "sunsafe" guidelines for schools when a medium to high index is reported by Environment Canada;
• revisiting plans to install new air conditioning systems in schools since ozone-depleting refrigerants such as CFCs and HCFCs are being banned or phased out over the next few years.

At the last Board meeting of the school year, the following resolution was adopted, with strong support:

1. That, through an active education programme and local school initiatives, the Board encourage all children, teachers and staff to be appropriately clothed for outdoor activities, e.g. wide-brimmed hats, long-sleeved shirts and long pants.
2. That the OBE write to Health and Welfare Canada and encourage them to initiate an additional programme for all Canadians on the dangers of sun, UV rays, etc., and also write to OPSBA (the Ontario Public School Boards Association) and ask for support.
3. That in recognition of the UV risk, the OBE initiate a programme whereby each OBE class be encouraged to adopt a tree by accessing the City of Ottawa Tree Planting Programme.

It's a start. But as we environmental activists well know, the environment takes a back seat when times are tough. This was in full evidence this spring when we once again asked to have the Get Sun Smart flyer distributed to all OBE students. What was done so readily in 1993 was much debated in 1995 in the name of fiscal restraint.

How true that we often have to take many steps backwards to move a small step forward. But we always get there eventually, don't we?

Marie Wellman is Chair of the OBE Advisory Committee on the Environment.

Converted July 7, 2000 - Lg

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