Toxins are all too common in our schools. They’re in our classrooms, cafeterias, and schoolyards. Half of our nation’s schools have problems linked to indoor air quality and asthma– it is the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic illness. Teens Turning Green: Schools (TTG: Schools) opposes these preventable problems and seeks to eliminate them in schools across the country.



Teens Turning Green is a national movement of teens transforming the world by investigating harmful exposures in daily lives, schools and communities, advocating for change in policy and habits to eliminate these exposures, and educating peers and the community about healthy alternatives. Through collaborative change, these young leaders inspire us all to work towards a healthy and sustainable future. In its fifth year, TTG continues to break new ground as members across the country promote awareness about reducing toxic exposure and advocate for healthy chemical policy.

From the pink soap in school bathrooms to the dry erase board markers in every classroom, many of the seemingly safe products in schools actually contain chemicals that are harmful to human and environmental health. Students, faculty, and maintenance staff are often unaware of the health implications of the products to which they are exposed daily. For example, the pink hand soap that one school uses contains the chemicals Cocamide DEA, a suspected carcinogen, and DMDM Hydantoin, which is so egregious that it is prohibited from cosmetic products in other countries. TTG: Schools aims to focus on the health and environmental implications of the products found in the following four areas of campus: janitorial, food, grounds, and classroom.



A group of students and adult mentors founded TTG: Schools in 2008 and now it is a national movement with schools around the country and around the world joining the effort. The following tools will help us to carry out our mission statement:

• Schools Network: We hope to engage many schools, creating a national network of students to collaborate on research and advocate for change nationwide.
• Pledged Projects: We ask each new school to pledge to a project to be completed by the 2010 TTG National Summit (in the SF Bay Area in February, and in New York in April).
• Toolkit: We would like each new school to be guided through the 6 steps to completing a project (start a chapter, inventory, investigate, analyze, advocate, and outreach) through our online toolkit.
• Product Database: We will assemble a database of product case studies on this website that investigate what is actually in the products in our schools.
• Advisory and Mentors: The National Advisory Board and the TTG Mentor program are set up so that experienced TTG campaign members can serve as mentors for schools new to the campaign.

We hope to inspire many innovative and successful projects during the 2009/10 school year to encouraging change in the way schools are approaching the products that they are using daily.