Pollution and Classroom Performance

  • Researchers at the University of Michigan are looking to see if air pollution is a factor in school kids’ health and academic performance. (Source: Motown31 at Wikimedia Commons)

Scientists are investigating whether
air pollution is affecting how well students
perform. Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Scientists are investigating whether
air pollution is affecting how well students
perform. Lester Graham reports:

Researchers say we might be building schools in the wrong places. We build them
near interstates full of polluting cars and trucks, and we build schools downwind of
factories. Kids might be getting a big dose of air pollution everyday they’re at school.

Researchers at the University of Michigan want to look at whether it’s actually
affecting kids. Paul Mohai is the lead researcher.

“School-aged children are particularly vulnerable because their bodies are growing.
They’re considered a vulnerable population and that’s all the more reason we should
be looking at the toxic burden that they may face, both in the schools that they go to
and where they live.”

Mohai and his colleagues will look at all the social and economic issues, and then air
pollution to see if it’s a factor in school kids’ health and academic performance.

For The Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.

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Report: Toxic Waste Sites Near Minorities

A new report says toxic waste facilities are more likely to be built near the homes of racial minorities. Rebecca Williams reports the study follows up on a landmark report from twenty years ago:

Transcript

A new report says toxic waste facilities are more likely to be built near the homes of racial minorities. Rebecca Williams reports the study follows up on a landmark report from twenty years ago:


Both studies examined how close people live to toxic waste sites. The new report finds minorities who live in poorer neighborhoods are the most likely to live near toxic sites. The report says little has changed in 20 years and problems have been made worse by weak environmental laws.


Paul Mohai is a professor at the University of Michigan and a co-author of the study. He says racial minorities in poorer neighborhoods are often unfairly treated.


“They’re quite a bit more at risk than white Americans because they do tend to live in communities that not only have more pollution burdens but they also lack resources frankly that more affluent white communities have.”


Mohai says minorities living in poor neighborhoods tend to have less access to elected officials. He says that can make it harder to fight against the siting of a new waste facility.


For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Link Between Race and Waste Facility Sites?

A new study adds to the debate over whether race plays a role in the placement of hazardous waste facilities. The GLRC’s Tracy Samilton reports:

Transcript

A new study adds to the debate over whether race plays a role in the placement of
hazardous waste facilities. The GLRC’s Tracy Samilton reports:


Previous studies have shown that about 25 percent of the people living near
toxic waste treatment and disposal facilities are minorities, but University of Michigan
Professor Paul Mohai says that’s because researchers looked at the neighborhood in
which the facility was located. Since most of them are located close to the edge of a neighborhood, many people living just a street or two away weren’t included:


“Statistically they’d be considered no closer to the facility than someone living a thousand
miles away from it.”


Mohai says the minority percentage is closer to 43 percent when all neighborhoods in a
circle around the site are included. Researchers still have to find out if the facilities are being placed in existing minority communities, or if minorities move into them afterwards. Some environmentalists say there should be stricter regulations on toxic
waste facilities to protect all people’s health.


For the GLRC, I’m Tracy Samilton.

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