Birmingham , Ala. , was one of the cities where the EPA performed air toxin monitoring around schools .
How clean is the air your child are breathe at school ? The EPA is on a mission to discover out .
Last year , as part of a new air toxin monitoring initiative , the delegacy began monitoring the out-of-door atmosphere around more than 60 schools in 22 nation , particularly those near industrial facilities . The testing was based on a list of 187 pollutants list in the Clean Air Act .
“ As a parent myself , I want to know that when I ’m transport my youngster off to educate the air they breathe will be safe , ” say EPA decision maker Lisa P. Jackson . “ For the first time , we have the information we need to make certain our minor are breathe clean airwave in areas that have worry parents in the past tense . As we study these atmosphere - quality samples , EPA will continue to work out quickly to protect all Americans — not just where they live and make for but also where they learn and play . ”
The first two of the analyses released by the EPA in June 2010 were for Pittsboro Elementary School in Pittsboro , Ind. , and Minnesota International Middle Charter School in Minneapolis , Minn. According to an EPA jam release , at both schools , “ levels of the fundamental pollutant monitor were below levels of both short- and retentive - term concern . ”
The EPA will carry on monitor and issuing notices of air - toxin levels around the selected schools through the fall .
Although the EPA ’s phone have been ring off the hook over this subject ( many attempts to get hold of the EPA for remark for this write up were not retrovert ) , thing at Roland - Story High School , in Story City , Iowa , could n’t be calmer . Even if the air near the school showed trace amount of diisocyanates prior to monitoring , it turns out that , like the schools in Pittsboro and Minneapolis , the air around the school in Story City is somewhat darn clean .
A small townspeople of about 3,000 people , Story City is about 50 miles from Aimes and 12 miles from Des Moines , but it does have one industrial location , the American Packaging Corporation . Diisocyanates is one of the byproducts the company uses for its gum .
When the EPA announced it would begin testing for the toxin around the gamy shoal , the Iowa Department of Natural Resources performed its own trial run , says Mike Billings , overseer of the Roland - Story Community School District . What it found , he says , was that American Packaging ’s own filter caught most of the toxin , and what might have been left was too sound to travel as far as the school .
“ My understanding is that it was an insignificant amount , ” billing aver .
He said the district advise parents — many of whom work for American Packaging and were already aware of the testing — through notes sent home with students , a jam release in the local newspaper and an announcement in the district newssheet . He says he received only about two outcry about it .
“ Certainly the EPA has a job to do , and they do a great job with it , ” Billings said . “ I recall the only thing I was concerned about was the federal government spending that form of money when the state was already on top of things . ”
The EPA tested for toluene diisocyanate , methylenediphenyl and hexamethylene diisocyanate around Roland - Story High School because of manufacture in the area that bring on them . So far , none of the three pollutant have been detected around the schooling .
Michaelle Chapman , a interpreter for Birmingham City Schools , in Birmingham , Ala. , say that though there were significant spirit level of benzene and pencil lead notice in the melodic phrase around that shoal , the outcry from parents has been minimum .
“ I think that maybe the reason for this is these schoolhouse are place in locality where the kid live , so it ’s more of a residential district problem than a school problem , ” Chapman says . “ We ’re a city with lots of industry , including a lot of steel manufacturing , piping companies and so on . ”
It ’s unreadable what , if anything , is being done to reduce toxin in the melodic phrase around the Birmingham City Schools .
To learn more about the EPA ’s Air Toxin Monitoring and to see a list of the school , visit the EPAwebsite .
