Tests need to look beneath the surface

A recent school matting problem matters to both students' health and industrial standards.

A kindergarten in Pujiang, East China's Zhejiang province, laid new plastic safety matting in its playground in October. The matting emitted a pungent smell and has been blamed for the illnesses of at least 61 children, most of whom sat in classrooms on the ground floor in the teaching building near the playground and exhibited symptoms of allergies and inflammation. The township education authority has entrusted a third party agency to test the material used for the matting, and said it would take 10 days to publish the results.

Although it is possible that the report will indicate that the plastic matting passed all the tests; that is not the whole of the problem.

Not long ago, four schools in Jiangsu province reportedly used such "pungent plastic matting", that allegedly caused nosebleeds and dizziness among the students. But the test results showed the matting met quality standards, and the matting did not show "unqualified indexes in its influence on the air".

But in fact, the rules on synthetic surface layer materials in China were made a long time ago and have not been revised since. They only target a few kinds of toxic materials. Tests conducted according to the rules do not include other toxic and harmful materials that will never appear in the test results and these could cause the children to fall sick.

The authorities urgently need to replace the old rules with new ones so that the tests look for all potentially harmful substances. Without new rules, the tests will not help the schools and parents find the cause of the problem if it lies with the matting, and more such problematic matting will enter schools and kindergartens.

Instead of protecting people's health, the tests become accomplices in any injury under the old standards.

The indoor environment monitoring center of the Chinese Indoor Decoration Association has confirmed that synthetic plastic materials will emit harmful smells, and should be banned from playgrounds in schools. Some international technical institutes also clearly suggested not using synthetic plastic materials in playgrounds.

It is said that the education authority in Taiwan has also urged schools to replace plastic running tracks with sand and soil tracks after some students reportedly became dizzy when running on synthetic tracks.

It is noteworthy that a government consultant in Beijing called the education authority's attention to the potential harm synthetic surface layer materials may have on the environment and students' health in 2005. But his words have not been heeded.

Ten years have passed. It is unreasonable to make parents rely on good luck for their children's health, as people's response to the pungent smell varies from person to person.

The education, environmental protection, construction and health ministries should organize a joint investigation into the effects synthetic surface layer materials may have on people's health and the environment, as soon as possible to respond to the public' concerns.

As it is a national issue, the central authorities are better suited to conduct such an investigation, the results of which directly relate to the health of young people. And some departments in these ministries and their subordinate institutes are all responsible for dispelling people's concerns according to their legal duties.

If the results veto the application of synthetic materials from schools at last, the authorities should also provide remedy solutions to mend the current "toxic" matting and tracks in the most economical and effective way, and to care for the children who fall sick because of harmful matting.

The article was firstly published in Beijing News on Oct 21.