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Center for Indoor Environments and Health (CIEH)
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The Center for Indoor Environments and Health has actively worked with school districts and State and Local Health Departments at specific school sites to improve the environment where the school building's condition has contributed to occupants experiencing concerning health symptoms.
Our services include guidance on:
- managing the problem and communicating the risk to the school community,
- tracking and evaluating the student's and staff health symptoms,
- assessing the building for causes of poor indoor air quality, and
- advising on engineering and technical resources that address remediation.
Our knowledge and perspective on the problems school communities face results not only from our consulting experience directly with school districts, but from our work for and with federal and state agencies. Programs have included guidance on Environmental Protection Agency Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools program, trainings customized for school nurses on illness and school environments, and guidance for clinicians on addressing health effects relating to mold/moisture in the indoor environment.
We were invited by the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering to participate in a critical review of indoor air pollution in schools requested by the Environment Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly that became a basis for the Indoor Air Quality in Schools Legislation passed in 2003.
Who We Are
The Center for Indoor Environments and Health staff includes:
- an environmental health specialist with strengths in environmental strategy and communications: Paula Schenck MPH,
- an allergist with a special interest in schools and respiratory health: Robert DeBernardo MD MPH,
Affiliate/consultant
- an occupational physician with expertise on environmental exposures and health: Eileen Storey, MD, MPH, UConn professor emeritus and educator
- industrial hygienists experienced with evaluating school environments: Anne L. Bracker MPH, CIH and Nancy J. Simcox MS.
We regularly collaborate with industrial hygienists and engineering firms with specialized expertise in building science.
Read about Services Provided to Schools
Contact Information
Paula Schenck, MPH
Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
University of Connecticut Health Center
The Exchange, 2nd Floor, Suite 262
270 Farmington Avenue, MC 6210
Farmington, CT 06032-6210
Directions
Click here for detailed driving directions and maps.
Last update: July 29, 2009 |
October 29, 2009
Medical Grand Rounds - Webinar program
The Center for Indoor Environments and Health
University of Connecticut Health Center
8:00 a.m.-10 a.m.
Link: http://mediasite.uchc.edu/Mediasite41/Viewer/?
peid=b1ea1e4bc3f646ec814e75f2fd44a8a4
From 8:00AM -9:00 AM, Dr Robert DeBernardo and Paula Schenck will present on
Allergy, Mold and Moisture in the Indoor Environment
Learning Objectives:
- Associate a patient’s symptomatic response to the environment with the basic mechanisms of disease, i.e. allergy and toxicity.
- Describe how multiple disease entities-infectious, irritation, toxic and allergic-could be precipitated by a single agent such as mold.
- Discuss how causality sometimes requires a careful environmental history and analysis.
- Discuss strategies to manage environmental control when indicated for effective treatment and disease prevention.
Recognizing that concerns are increasing about reactive airways, rhinitis and asthma in relationship to exposures in the indoor environment, this presentation will discuss the irritation, allergic and toxic mechanisms related to mold and other allergens with specific emphasis on allergic/immunological mechanisms. The basic mechanisms of allergy inductive phase and reactive phase will be discussed in relationship to a patient’s response to the environment. Strategies for reviewing environmental information and for counseling patients on environmental change will be addressed. The ultimate goal of the presentation is to identify opportunities for prevention of these disease entities by control of the indoor environment.
Then from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM, Dr. DeBernardo and Ms Schenck will be joined by Eileen Storey ( Professor Emeritus, UConn School of Medicine) and William A Turner (Turner Building Science) for a discussion and to address questions.
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A pilot program, "Tools for Techs," addresses the unique indoor air quality issues found in Technical High Schools and the traditional high schools that teach technologies.
2008 United States Environmental Protection Agency National Excellence Award Winner! The CT team was recognized by the EPA on Dec. 1, 2008 for it's outstanding work. |
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For physicians and other health care providers faced with a rapidly growing number of patients troubled by indoor contaminants, link to this resource, entitled "Guidance for Clinicians on the Recognition and Management of Health Effects related to Mold Exposure and Moisture Indoors", published by the Center for Indoor Environments and Health at UConn Health Center.
Read our book online
Guidance for Clinicians on the Recognition and Management of Health Effects related to Mold Exposure and Moisture Indoors
Clinician's Guide book order form
(Acrobat Reader 6.0 or 7.0 required)
Clinician's Guide book order form in MS Word
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