Geographic and sociodemographic disparities in estimated potential exposure risks of children to ambient air respiratory toxicants at US public schools
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Rationale (e.g., What is the problem?) [125 words]
Air pollution in the United States (US) varies geographically at both the regional and community scales. As children have higher respiratory rates, they are at greater risk from inhaled air pollutants compared to adults. In addition, children with disabilities may potentially be more susceptible to air pollution than nondisabled children. Research shows that air pollutants in the form of respiratory toxicants can represent a significant health risk to children. Currently, limited data are available on children’s potential exposures to ambient air respiratory toxicants while at school. This study will address this data gap and assess schoolchildren’s disparities associated with disability status and race and ethnicity.
Approach (e.g., What are you doing to address the problem?) [125 words]
We assessed the estimated exposure risks to ambient air respiratory toxicants for children attending regular public schools in the 50 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. We evaluated whether racial and ethnic and disabled minorities have potentially greater exposure risks. We paired sociodemographic data per school (n=88,846) with respiratory hazard indexes (HI) at the census tract-level from the 2018 USEPA’s Air Toxics Screening Assessment. We ranked schools by their census tract respiratory HI and identified the top 5% as “higher-HI schools.” Using a Chi-square test, we compared the proportion of disabled children in higher-HI schools versus in all schools. Comparisons of higher-HI schools to all schools by race and ethnicity and the combination of race and ethnicity and disability were also conducted.
Results and Discussion (e.g., What did you or do you expect to learn?) [125 words]
Our preliminary results indicated ~0.2% of public schools were located within census tracts with respiratory HI>1 (increased potential for adverse health effects), whereas higher-HI schools (top 5%) were within census tracts with HI>0.48. The proportion of disabled children attending higher-HI schools was significantly different (p<0.001) from all schools with the proportion attending higher-HI schools lower than across all schools. Proportions of children by race and ethnicity attending higher-HI schools were significantly different (p<0.001) from all schools, with proportions of Hispanic/Latino children attending higher-HI schools higher than across all schools. Proportions of disabled children by race and ethnicity attending higher-HI schools were significantly different (p<0.001) than across all schools with proportions of disabled Hispanic/Latino children attending higher-HI schools higher than across all schools.
Why does it matter? [125 words]
Children with disabilities are vulnerable to the effects of environmental hazards which can be influenced by additional social risk factors such as race and ethnicity. They may also be potentially more susceptible than nondisabled children to ambient air respiratory toxicants. However, few studies have examined the exposures of disabled children to air respiratory toxicants in public school settings including the intersection of race and ethnicity. Our study addresses some of these current knowledge gaps and has conducted a nationwide screening-level assessment of geographic and sociodemographic disparities in estimated exposure risks of children to ambient air respiratory toxicants. Due to variation in eligibility criteria for disabled schoolchildren across states, our results may be impacted and highlights the need for nation-wide consistent data reporting.
Do you feel this is newsworthy and if so, why? [100 words]
This research study is newsworthy as few published studies are available in the literature that have examined schoolchildren’s sociodemographic factors (disability status and race and ethnicity) and exposure risks to ambient air pollutants on a national level.