SCHOOL NURSES GROUP PROTESTS IN-SCHOOL POLLUTION.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: MICHAEL GORMLEY Associated Press

ALBANY -- Twenty years ago, school nurse Sharon Shea could lock up the inhalers and respiratory medication for the 800 students in her middle school in a small lock box that fit in her desk.

Today, the ``meds'' take up two shelves in a closet.

Each square inch of that additional space means that more children are suffering from asthma, allergies and other respiratory ailments. School nurses say the increase in medications cries out for restricting pesticides and exposure to other substances, substances which they say assault student health throughout New York.

``There's a great increase in the allergy and asthma rate,'' said Shea, a nurse practitioner in Long Island and a past president of the New York State Association of School Nurses. ``You have a lot of things going on you'd never see 24 years ago.''

The association is pushing the state Legislature for laws that would require schools to buy fewer toxic and polluting materials, from workshop engines to cleaners.

The group also wants schools to adopt a ``least-toxic'' pest control program. That would require schools to choose the least-powerful pesticide that would still kill a specific pest. It is common approach in government buildings and even on many public golf courses.

But school districts, as many found out in defeated budget votes this spring, have to worry about finances, too.

``Schools are already burdened by mandates,'' said Barbara Bradley, spokeswoman for the New York State School Boards Association. ``If an environmental product makes sense, the school board should be able to do that and not be mandated to do it.''

Bradley said the association opposes the proposal to require more environmentally sensitive purchasing in part because of a lack of a clear definition of the proposed policy. That restriction, Bradley said, could force schools to unnecessarily pay much more for a product.

The proposal to require a least-toxic pest control program is similar to an existing law, Bradley said. The proposal simply requires reports more often, even though its advocates say it would provide greater protection to students and staff.

``Kids are affected immediately by pollutants and schools aren't taking it seriously,'' said Claire Barnett, executive director of the Health Schools Network that is lobbying for the bills.