A classroom, one of many places I can't go: whiteboard marker fumes

[South]

Just venting here. Can't tell my friends, where else can I get this off my chest?

Classrooms, in community colleges where I might otherwise take a class, use whiteboards now, instead of chalkboards like they did a few decades ago. I cannot take a class. Whiteboard marker fumes make me completely ill, in minutes.

And GRADE SCHOOLS where small CHILDREN sit, use the same toxic markers! Why doesn't any leadership out there advocate going back to non-toxic chalk and chalkboards?

In an awful roundabout way, I'm glad I don't have children, I'd have to send them off to a school to breathe in this crap. Even if those children didn't have MCS like I do, and didn't immediately get nauseus from the smell, they'd be of course building up the toxins in their bodies. Yay.

Some more facts about these awful products:
http://www.healthyschools.org/documents/Markers-2011.pdf

 

[Denise]

I definitely understand your venting about these markers.
I am not sure though that I favor going back to chalk as the dust is a big asthma trigger for many.
I don't know what the best solution is though.

 

[SOC]

I definitely understand your venting about these markers.
I am not sure though that I favor going back to chalk as the dust is a big asthma trigger for many.
I don't know what the best solution is though.

I'm with Denise here. I taught in college classroom for years over the transition from chalkboards to whiteboards. Both are problematic.

I wish there as a better solution because both cause problems, but if I had to choose, I'd go with whiteboards. The problem with chalk is that so much of it gets in the air that students with asthma and other respiratory conditions had problems no matter where they sat in the room. Whiteboard marker fumes generally only affected the person using them and the students in the first row or two, so most sensitive students could sit in the back of the room and be okay.

This is no consolation to teachers who have to use them or students who are more than usually sensitive. Hopefully someday soon we'll have electronic boards in all classrooms so teachers could write on tablets and have it show up on the board -- no fumes or particles.

 

[Martial]

I thought those dry erase board markers were non toxic? I only get nauseated from Sharpie markers, and that's if I stick my nose to the tip of the pens lol. Seems like a pain either way I guess.

 

[Valentijn]

I wish there as a better solution because both cause problems, but if I had to choose, I'd go with whiteboards.

Overhead projectors with transparent writing sheets The marker pens used on those weren't particularly nasty. I think they need to be sprayed and wiped before being re-used, but at least students wouldn't have to be exposed.

And if there's sufficient funding, an overhead projector connected to a computer would be even better.