Our major transportation arteries are toxic for anyone living or playing near them. Too bad that’s where 1 in 3 public schools are located.
Erin Brockovich fought against one company’s malfeasance in polluting the water of a local town and won. They made a movie about it, and Julia Roberts won an Oscar. This same level of travesty, however, occurs every day around America’s freeways. Unfortunately, the victims can’t file a class-action lawsuit against everyone who drives a car.
A new study finds that one in three U.S. public schools is in an “air pollution danger zone” — within about 1,300 feet from a major highway.
University of Cincinnati researchers have found that more than 30 percent of American public schools are within 400 meters, or a quarter mile, of major highways that consistently serve as main truck and traffic routes.
Research has shown that proximity to major highways—and thus environmental pollutants, such as aerosolizing diesel exhaust particles—can leave school-age children more susceptible to respiratory diseases later in life.
“This is a major public health concern that should be given serious consideration in future urban development, transportation planning and environmental policies,” says Sergey Grinshpun, PhD, principal investigator of the study and professor of environmental health at UC.
To protect the health of young children with developing lungs, he says new schools should be built further from major highways.
“Health risk can be mitigated through proper urban planning, but that doesn’t erase the immediate risk to school-age children attending schools that are too close to highways right now,” he adds. “Existing schools should be retrofitted with air filtration systems that will reduce students’ exposure to traffic pollutants.”
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