Pollution Levels Near Public Schools

Find Out if Your Child's Health is at Risk from the Environment

Dec 8, 2008 Jennifer Wagaman

Although school is supposed to be a safe place for our children, new information shows that the air our children breathe around their schools may be toxic.

USA Today conducted an 8 month investigation to check the levels of toxins found in the air at schools across the nation. Using the 2005 pollution data from the EPA to pinpoint schools most likely to be in a polluted area, 435 schools ranked the worst across the country for levels of dangerous toxins in the air that our children are breathing day in and day out. These levels are above that considered by the government as safe for our children to breathe.

What Toxins are in the Air?

Some of the chemicals found in the air include Benzene, Manganese, Nickel and Chromium. Different toxins were found in different areas. Each school on the list is down wind of plants, factories and smoke stacks that expel these chemicals into the air. These same factories state that they are not releasing pollutants at levels that are dangerous to people.

These toxins may be making many children sick as suspected in several cases discussed in the USA Today investigation. At this time they do not definitively know the long term effect of many of these chemicals on children's health. You can find a list of toxic schools and search for your child's school at the USA Today web site.

What is the EPA Doing About This?

The EPA has been working continually towards improving air quality for children. They have partnered with schools to improve the air quality inside school buildings through efforts to eliminate cleaning products and other items that release toxic chemicals into the air. They are currently looking into whether the synthetic turf found on many school fields contains toxic chemicals that would harm children.

Even so, according to the investigation done by USA Today, the EPA has not taken the step to look for problems outside the schools, which includes testing for toxic chemicals in the air. Ruth McCully, the head of the Children’s health protection office in the EPA, says that she personally is “not out there doing air monitoring” so she does not have knowledge of what chemicals are “outside the kids’ schools.” A fact that is disturbing to many critics.

The EPA released a statement saying that “…USA Today’s [school] rankings should not be taken as definitive. Much more needs to be known to confidently assess the risks from toxic air pollutants at any given location. USA Today’s study calls attention to the enormous tasks confronting U.S. EPA and state and local agencies."

The copyright of the article Pollution Levels Near Public Schools in Educational Issues is owned by Jennifer Wagaman. Permission to republish Pollution Levels Near Public Schools in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Health Risks for Your Child at School

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Sep 23, 2009 2:15 PM

Guest :

These maps and data are relevant to discussion.

Toxic Chemical Pollution, Children and Schools in the U.S.

http://www.mapcruzin.com/toxicrisk/index.htm

ToxicRisk.com is a Google Maps based mashup project that uses the latest EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data, released March 19,2009, and schools in the U.S. Links are provided to RTK Net for detailed chemical pollution release data and Scorecard for chemical information.

As you zoom in you will see a change in the icons of the facilities near the center of the map - these are the ones that you can click on and find the facility name, number of schools within 1 mile and number of schools within 5 miles of the facility plus a link to a database about the toxic history of the facility. You can also click on a chemical to learn more about associated risks. The schools will appear as you zoom in. As you zoom in further, you will see the school icon change - at that point you can click on the school to view its name. Click here for a graphical mini-tutorial. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments, please email me. I'd love to hear from you.

Michael Meuser and Aran Deltac, co-developers of ToxicRisk.com, have been doing interactive pollution mapping since the early 1990s. Their Santa Cruz Toxic Release Inventory was the first U.S. based interactive toxic chemical facility mapping project on the internet. It was son followed with their work on the mapping interface for the launch of Environmental Defense Fund's Scorecard Project.

Michael works fulltime developing content for http://www.MapCruzin.com and doing Community GIS projects. Aran is programming team leader for a major internet development company.

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