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DEP Finds Air Quality Around Schools To Be Safe, Refuting USA Today Report
The Department of Environmental Protection today reported it found no unsafe levels of air pollutants or metals after extensively examining air quality samples taken recently near four Pennsylvania schools.
 
Environmental Protection Acting Secretary John Hanger said that the results of DEP's in-depth monitoring refutereports by USA Today in December 2008 that relied only on a "snapshot" measurement approach at three ofthe schools. DEP sampled the air at a fourth school at the request of district officials.
 
"The quality of the air Pennsylvania's children breathe is a top concern," Acting Secretary Hanger said. "When USA Today suggested there was a potential problem, we immediately set out to verify their findings, but have been unable todo so. We simply have not found the levels of pollutants the newspaper's testing seemed to indicate.
 
"While that's the case, we plan to continue monitoring at certain schools for a limited period so we can furthersubstantiate our findings and ensure the safety of these communities and their citizens."
 
Using federally accepted scientific protocols, DEP placed air quality monitors directly at the school buildings andtested samples collected over several weeks. In contrast, USA Today sampled only once over several days and did not indicate the locations of their monitors and their distance from the schools. Some monitors were placed at the homes of volunteers and othersat the offices of affiliated newspapers near the schools, the newspaper said.
 
"Our testing found the total excess lifetime cancer risk from exposure to pollutants at these schools is within theacceptable range identified by the Environmental Protection Agency," Acting Secretary Hanger said. "Any health risk to a child, ofcourse, is difficult for a parent to accept, which is why we are so committed to reducing air pollution not only inthe area around these schools, but everywhere across the Commonwealth."
 
The schools DEP monitored and the primary pollutants identified by USA Today's snapshot testing at each respective location are:
 
-- Midland Elementary/Middle School, Beaver County; chromium and manganese;
 
-- Wayne Middle School, Erie County, benzene and naphthalene;
 
-- Stony Brook Elementary School, York County; benzene and chromium; and
 
 
Although USA Today did not conduct snapshottesting there, the newspaper used a comparative risk model to label the area around the school as a high-pollution zone, identifying chromium and nickel as the pollutants of concern.
 
The Allegheny County Health Department took air samples at Highlands High School in Natrona Heights, where USA Today identified chromium as a pollutant of concern. The county is also collecting samples at the Montessori Children's School in Bridgeville and the Sto-Rox schools in McKees Rocks.
 
At each school where DEP monitored the air quality, the department calculated the excess lifetime cancer risk,or the risk above the general overall cancer risk of four in 10, from exposure to the pollutants of concern. Theseranged from 4 in 100,000 at Stonybrook Elementary School to 5 in one million at Phoenixville Area Kindergarten Center.
 
The excess lifetime cancer risk is comparable to the state background level of 5.7 in 100,000, as determined byair toxics monitoring routinely conducted by the department. The EPA generally considers an excess lifetimecancer risk above one in 10,000 to be unacceptable.
 
DEP plans to continue monitoring at Midland for several months and will also conduct sampling at six otherschools in areas with pollutants of concern identified by USA Today.

2/27/2009

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