Source: Xinhua
04-02-2009 10:22
Special Report: Tech MaxHouston, March 31 (Xinhua) -- In an unprecedented step aimed at protecting children from toxic chemicals, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday begins to monitor the air outside schools in Houston where oil and chemical companies crowded together.
The test will continue in two months and the 4 pilot schools are Young Scholars Academy in downtown, Lamkin Elementary in Cypress and San Jacinto Elementary and Deer Park Hunior High in Deer Park, all not very far from oil and chemical complex.
Nationwide, the EPA will spend 2.25 million dollars to study the air outside 62 schools in 22 states.
The EPA's effort to systematically examine industrial pollution outside schools comes in response to recent media reports which have raised critical questions about air quality outside schools near large industrial facilities.
A report published in USA Today last December showed at least 435 U.S. Schools where the air outside appeared to be more toxic than the air at an Ohio elementary school closed in 2005. There, the Ohio EPA found levels of carcinogens 50 times what the state considered acceptable.
