Students returning to Pennsylvania classrooms are likely to encounter unhealthy mold, radon and lead, and districts are moving slowly to remediate environmental hazards, according to a report issued by a Pittsburgh-based advocacy group today.

The report, published by the Women for a Healthy Environment [WHE] program Healthy Schools, outlines environmental risks, health consequences and policy recommendations aimed at safeguarding long-term well-being for the state’s schoolchildren. 

“It reveals, unfortunately, a disturbing trend where Pennsylvania schools are identifying these serious environmental hazards, yet we’re consistently failing to take the necessary steps to protect our students and school personnel,” said Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, executive director of WHE. 

Lower rates of testing in Pittsburgh region

The program requested data from a representative 166 of the state’s 500 school districts for the school years 2018 to 2022 to determine the extent to which those districts were complying with recognized environmental standards and track improvements since the last evaluation, issued in 2021. 

WHE asked for detailed data on lead testing in water, overall water quality, lead paint, mold, air quality, anti-idling measures, use of pesticides, green cleaning materials, expansion of artificial turf fields and records of construction or renovations. They also sought updates on HVAC systems and the use of federal pandemic-relief funds for emergency preparedness.

In Southwestern Pennsylvania — that includes school districts from Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland counties — most schools reported lower rates of environmental testing and remediation, as well as weaker compliance with best practices, compared to prior reports.

Many hazards, little progress

Not all school districts tested for all environmental hazards as requested by Healthy Schools. The majority tested for lead in drinking water, mold and overall water quality, while some also screened for radon, lead paint, polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs] and polyfluoroalkyl substances [PFAS]. Among the districts that did conduct testing:

• 95% found lead in drinking water.
• 61.5% reported mold in their buildings.
• 55% reported excess lead in paint. 
• 75% reported excess radon, a naturally occurring radioactive, invisible and odorless gas that is the second leading cause of lung cancer.
• 19% reported exceedances for water quality standards, which included water standards for lead, copper, PFAS and bacteria. PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” cannot be easily broken down, and can lead to severe and long-term health impacts. 

Few districts took action to remediate these environmental hazards. The report found that:

• 29% of school districts took action to remove mold.
• 11% of school districts tried to remediate lead in drinking water.
• No school took action to remove radon, lead in paint or water quality issues. 

Other key findings:

• Low-income districts reported higher asthma rates and fewer remediation measures to reduce asthma triggers. Significant racial disparities also emerged: 11% of white children, 17% of Black children and 17% of Hispanic children had been diagnosed with lifetime asthma.
• Around 14% of the state’s children have asthma, nearly double the national average. 
• Nearly 79% of schools had policies in place to control pests with the least hazard to the environment and people, but half of those schools still contracted pesticide companies to apply chemicals on school grounds.
• 46% of districts had anti-idling signs posted. State law requires any location where vehicles are used to load or unload and sites with 15 or more parking spaces to have anti-idling signage. 
• Many school buildings were constructed before lead paint and PCBs were banned, raising the risk of hazardous materials in walls, caulking and light fixtures.
• 5% of school districts conducted tests for PFAS in water that have been linked to certain cancers, immune system suppression, developmental impacts and other health risks.

“The findings in this report represent a public health crisis hiding right in plain sight,” said Deborah Gentile, medical director at Community Partners in Asthma Care. 

Gentile’s research has found that Allegheny County children living in or attending schools in areas that are near point sources of pollution had asthma prevalence rates two to three times higher than expected based on state, county and national levels. 

Despite schools setting aside some funding for testing, the report did not find any changes to mitigate the environmental risks since the previous report, said Naccarati-Chapkis. 

“We have done enough testing of school buildings over the last, let’s see, eight years that we know when you test for it, you find it, and so that is still something that has not changed,” she added.

How are districts in Southwestern Pennsylvania faring?

Indoor air quality:

Rising temperatures and aging air conditioning systems have led to unsafe learning environments, forcing some schools to close and shift to remote learning in hot weather. In Southwestern Pennsylvania, 81 school districts reported updates to the HVAC systems between March 2020 and June 2022. Many districts used COVID-relief funds to update outdated HVAC systems. 

Asthma prevalence:

Regionally, asthma rates decreased in the years 2016-17, 2019-20 and 2021-22. The report suggests that the drop may be linked to students staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic, which coincided with a 15% decrease in asthma cases between 2019 and 2022. On the other hand, asthma prevalence doubled in five school districts in the region. Higher rates of asthma have been linked with absenteeism and can lead to long-term, negative academic consequences for students.

Mold:

In 2021-22, about half of the school districts in the region tested for mold in at least one building. Of those, 26 school districts were recommended for remediation. However, only one school had any documentation of work being completed.

Building construction and materials:

Pennsylvania’s schools are, on average, 20 years older than the national standard, increasing the likelihood of banned and harmful PCB chemicals in the construction materials. In 2021-22, only 2% of school buildings in the region were tested for PCBs. That same year, 9% of Southwestern Pennsylvania districts tested for lead paint. Of those, 22% detected lead, but just one district provided documentation showing remediation.

Water quality:

71% of school districts reported lead in drinking water in 2021-22. 3% of school districts included PFAS testing in their water quality testing. 

Radon:

15% of school districts conducted radon testing in 2021-22. 67% of those districts had radon levels categorized as high risk by the Environmental Protection Agency. WHE’s 1,000 Hours a Year program has provided funding and technical assistance to schools and childcare centers for lead and radon testing, leading to an increase in air quality monitoring. 

Recommendations and legislation

State Sen. Devlin Robinson, R-Bridgeville, is sponsoring two bills to address lead contamination in drinking water in schools and ensure radon testing is conducted in every school building in the state. 

“Schools have been rightfully concerned about the mental health of students in recent years, and the General Assembly has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to provide resources to schools to address those needs,” he said during a briefing on Wednesday. “But this report highlights that we must be equally concerned about the condition and safety of our school buildings and the dangerous effects lead, radon and other environmental hazards have on our youngest Pennsylvanians.”

Naccarati-Chapkis said aside from state legislation, there needs to be state guidance to schools on indoor air quality management and procurement practices for purchasing certified green cleaning products. WHE also wants schools to install lead-removing filters at all water stations and fountains.

“We know that every child deserves an environment free of environmental hazards, one that promotes clean air, clean water, and no exposure to any harmful chemicals, regardless of the ZIP code, regardless of the income,” said Naccarati-Chapkis. “And so this is something that our findings really highlighted, is the urgent need for stronger regulations and policies, both at the school board level and the state level.”

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.

Close window

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

You may republish this Pittsburgh's Public Source story in full online or in print under the conditions stated below. You may also choose to republish the first 12 paragraphs with imagery and link to PublicSource for the full story. All you need to do is copy the HTML code we provide on this page and paste it into your CMS. We strongly encourage you to copy the code and paste it directly into a code editor. In Wordpress, press the three dots in the upper right of the Post and choose Code editor. That should give you the story text, along with photos from the body of the article. Here are your obligations under our republishing guidelines:

• Give us credit, in this format: “by [Author Name(s)], Pittsburgh's Public Source”.
• Include a line at the top of the story that reads: “Pittsburgh's Public Source is an independent nonprofit newsroom serving the Pittsburgh region. Sign up for our free newsletters.”
• In the html code of the page, include a line of javascript that helps us keep track of hits. It’s already in the code below.

Let us know when you use our work by sending an email to ds@publicsource.org. By republishing our story, you agree to the following conditions:

• You can’t edit, cut or alter the story, except to suit your in-house style (e.g. % vs. “percent,” honorifics, etc).
• You must not resell the story or sell ads against the story. It’s fine to publish the story on a page that’s surrounded by previously sold ads, however.
• Please exclude our work from being published or syndicated to third-party platforms or apps like Newsbreak under your publication name, when possible

If you share the story or a link to the story on social media, please tag us on Twitter (@publicsourcepa), Instagram (@publicsource), Facebook (@publicsource) or TikTok (@publicsource). We reserve the right to deny, revoke or limit the rights conveyed herein for any reason, including (but not limited to) instances in which these conditions are not met or the reproduced material is not presented in a responsible manner.

Schools in Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh area slow to fix environmental hazards

by Lajja Mistry, Pittsburgh's Public Source
August 20, 2025

<h1>Schools in Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh area slow to fix environmental hazards</h1> <p class="byline">by Lajja Mistry, Pittsburgh's Public Source <br />August 20, 2025</p> <p>Students returning to Pennsylvania classrooms are likely to encounter unhealthy mold, radon and lead, and districts are moving slowly to remediate environmental hazards, according to a report issued by a Pittsburgh-based advocacy group today.</p> <p><a href="https://womenforahealthyenvironment.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/SOSreport2025.15.pdf">The report</a>, published by the <a href="https://womenforahealthyenvironment.org/about/who-we-are/">Women for a Healthy Environment [WHE</a>] program Healthy Schools, outlines environmental risks, health consequences and policy recommendations aimed at safeguarding long-term well-being for the state’s schoolchildren.&nbsp;</p> <p>“It reveals, unfortunately, a disturbing trend where Pennsylvania schools are identifying these serious environmental hazards, yet we're consistently failing to take the necessary steps to protect our students and school personnel,” said Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, executive director of WHE.&nbsp;</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lower-rates-of-testing-in-pittsburgh-region"><strong>Lower rates of testing in Pittsburgh region</strong></h2> <p>The program requested data from a representative 166 of the state’s 500 school districts for the school years 2018 to 2022 to determine the extent to which those districts were complying with recognized environmental standards and track improvements since <a href="https://womenforahealthyenvironment.org/our-work/healthy-schools/healthy-schools-environmental-hazard-map/">the last evaluation</a>, issued in 2021.&nbsp;</p> <p>WHE asked for detailed data on lead testing in water, overall water quality, lead paint, mold, air quality, anti-idling measures, use of pesticides, green cleaning materials, expansion of artificial turf fields and records of construction or renovations. They also sought updates on HVAC systems and the use of federal pandemic-relief funds for emergency preparedness.</p> <p>In Southwestern Pennsylvania — that includes school districts from Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland counties — most schools reported lower rates of environmental testing and remediation, as well as weaker compliance with best practices, compared to prior reports.</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-many-hazards-little-progress"><strong>Many hazards, little progress</strong></h2> <p>Not all school districts tested for all environmental hazards as requested by Healthy Schools. The majority tested for lead in drinking water, mold and overall water quality, while some also screened for radon, lead paint, polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs] and polyfluoroalkyl substances [PFAS]. Among the districts that did conduct testing:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>95% found lead in drinking water.</li> <li>61.5% reported mold in their buildings.</li> <li>55% reported excess lead in paint.&nbsp;</li> <li>75% reported excess radon, a naturally occurring radioactive, invisible and odorless gas that is the second leading cause of lung cancer.</li> <li>19% reported exceedances for water quality standards, which included water standards for lead, copper, PFAS and bacteria. PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” cannot be easily broken down, and can lead to severe and long-term health impacts.&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p>Few districts took action to remediate these environmental hazards. The report found that:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>29% of school districts took action to remove mold.</li> <li>11% of school districts tried to remediate lead in drinking water.</li> <li>No school took action to remove radon, lead in paint or water quality issues.&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p>Other key findings:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li>Low-income districts reported higher asthma rates and fewer remediation measures to reduce asthma triggers. Significant racial disparities also emerged: 11% of white children, 17% of Black children and 17% of Hispanic children had been diagnosed with lifetime asthma.</li> <li>Around 14% of the state’s children have asthma, nearly double the national average.&nbsp;</li> <li>Nearly 79% of schools had policies in place to <a href="https://www.epa.gov/safepestcontrol/integrated-pest-management-ipm-principles">control pests with the least hazard</a> to the environment and people, but half of those schools still contracted pesticide companies to apply chemicals on school grounds.</li> <li>46% of districts had anti-idling signs posted. State law requires any location where vehicles are used to load or unload and sites with 15 or more parking spaces to have anti-idling signage.&nbsp;</li> <li>Many school buildings were constructed before lead paint and PCBs were banned, raising the risk of hazardous materials in walls, caulking and light fixtures.</li> <li>5% of school districts conducted tests for PFAS in water that have been linked to certain cancers, immune system suppression, developmental impacts and other health risks.</li> </ul> <p>“The findings in this report represent a public health crisis hiding right in plain sight,” said Deborah Gentile, medical director at Community Partners in Asthma Care. </p> <p>Gentile’s research has found that Allegheny County children living in or attending schools in areas that are near point sources of pollution had asthma prevalence rates two to three times higher than expected based on state, county and national levels.&nbsp;</p> <p>Despite schools setting aside some funding for testing, the report did not find any changes to mitigate the environmental risks since the previous report, said Naccarati-Chapkis.&nbsp;</p> <p>“We have done enough testing of school buildings over the last, let's see, eight years that we know when you test for it, you find it, and so that is still something that has not changed,” she added.</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-are-districts-in-southwestern-pennsylvania-faring"><strong>How are districts in Southwestern Pennsylvania faring?</strong></h2> <p><strong>Indoor air quality:</strong></p> <p>Rising temperatures and aging air conditioning systems have led to unsafe learning environments, forcing some schools to close and shift to remote learning in hot weather. In Southwestern Pennsylvania, 81 school districts reported updates to the HVAC systems between March 2020 and June 2022. Many districts used COVID-relief funds to update outdated HVAC systems.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Asthma prevalence:</strong></p> <p>Regionally, asthma rates decreased in the years 2016-17, 2019-20 and 2021-22. The report suggests that the drop may be linked to students staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic, which coincided with a 15% decrease in asthma cases between 2019 and 2022. On the other hand, asthma prevalence doubled in five school districts in the region. Higher rates of asthma have been linked with absenteeism and can lead to long-term, negative academic consequences for students.</p> <p><strong>Mold:</strong></p> <p>In 2021-22, about half of the school districts in the region tested for mold in at least one building. Of those, 26 school districts were recommended for remediation. However, only one school had any documentation of work being completed.</p> <p><strong>Building construction and materials:</strong></p> <p>Pennsylvania’s schools are, on average, 20 years older than the national standard, increasing the likelihood of banned and harmful PCB chemicals in the construction materials. In 2021-22, only 2% of school buildings in the region were tested for PCBs. That same year, 9% of Southwestern Pennsylvania districts tested for lead paint. Of those, 22% detected lead, but just one district provided documentation showing remediation.</p> <p><strong>Water quality:</strong></p> <p>71% of school districts reported lead in drinking water in 2021-22. 3% of school districts included PFAS testing in their water quality testing.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Radon:</strong></p> <p>15% of school districts conducted radon testing in 2021-22. 67% of those districts had radon levels categorized as high risk by the Environmental Protection Agency. WHE’s 1,000 Hours a Year program has provided funding and technical assistance to schools and childcare centers for lead and radon testing, leading to an increase in air quality monitoring.&nbsp;</p> <h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-recommendations-and-legislation"><strong>Recommendations and legislation</strong></h2> <p>State Sen. Devlin Robinson, R-Bridgeville, is sponsoring two bills to address <a href="https://www.palegis.us/legislation/bills/2023/sb986">lead</a> contamination in drinking water in schools and ensure <a href="https://www.palegis.us/legislation/bills/2025/sb760">radon testing</a> is conducted in every school building in the state.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Schools have been rightfully concerned about the mental health of students in recent years, and the General Assembly has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to provide resources to schools to address those needs,” he said during a briefing on Wednesday. “But this report highlights that we must be equally concerned about the condition and safety of our school buildings and the dangerous effects lead, radon and other environmental hazards have on our youngest Pennsylvanians.”</p> <p>Naccarati-Chapkis said aside from state legislation, there needs to be state guidance to schools on indoor air quality management and procurement practices for purchasing certified green cleaning products. WHE also wants schools to install lead-removing filters at all water stations and fountains.</p> <p>“We know that every child deserves an environment free of environmental hazards, one that promotes clean air, clean water, and no exposure to any harmful chemicals, regardless of the ZIP code, regardless of the income,” said Naccarati-Chapkis. “And so this is something that our findings really highlighted, is the urgent need for stronger regulations and policies, both at the school board level and the state level.”</p> <p><em>Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source. She can be reached at </em><a href="mailto:lajja@publicsource.org"><em>lajja@publicsource.org</em></a><em>.</em></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/pennsylvania-pittsburgh-schools-health-environmental-hazards-lead-radon-report/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org&quot;&gt;Pittsburgh&#039;s Public Source&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.publicsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-ps_circle_favicon_blue.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=1322383&amp;amp;ga4=G-CCLXQK5C14&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.publicsource.org/pennsylvania-pittsburgh-schools-health-environmental-hazards-lead-radon-report/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/publicsource.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

Copy to Clipboard

1