The Proximity of Children’s Public Schools to Nearby Pollution Sources in the United States
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In the United States (US), no federal or consistent state regulations currently exist for the safe siting distance of children’s public schools to nearby environmental hazards. Our study objective was to determine the number of K-12 public schools (regular, special education, career/technical, and alternative education; n=93,736) located within 0.5 miles of pollution sources reporting annually to the US Environmental Protection Agency (i.e., Brownfield sites, Superfund sites, Resource Conservation & Recovery Act [RCRA] and Toxic Release Inventory facilities). We found that 41.3% (n=38,700) of all public schools were located within 0.5 miles of greater than 10 pollution sources. A total of 7.6% (n=7,079) of all public schools had more than 50 nearby pollutant sources within 0.5 miles. Among all states, New York had the highest number of schools (n=1,819) within 0.5 miles of more than 50 pollution sources. The most common source within 0.5 mile of schools was RCRA hazardous, non-hazardous, and municipal waste sites (91.5%). In addition, 57.4% of the special education schools in New York were within 0.5 miles of over 50 pollution sources. Our assessment of K-12 schools siting indicated that over 40% of US public schools are currently located within 0.5 miles of more than 10 pollution sources. These significant findings suggest the need for a closer evaluation of the public-school environment to determine children’s potential exposures and health risks to chemicals originating from nearby pollution sources.