USA Today published a special report examining pollution data from the EPA and the nation's schools, including private schools. The results are very surprising. An Ohio elementary school was shut down after state EPA officials found the chances of getting cancer there to be 50 times higher than accepted levels. Meanwhile in Texas, Port Neches-Groves High School (south of Beaumont) has more than two dozen graduates that were diagnosed with cancer several years after high school. The paper reports that 17 of those students have reached settlements with nearby petrochemical plants.
But locally, the numbers are unsettling. USA Today found Midlothian's Peak and Vitovsky elementary schools at the worst level for exposure to cancer-causing toxins and other chemicals (the first percentile. The lower the percentile higher the exposure to such toxins). The city has three cement plants.
Diamond Hill Elementary School to be the Fort Worth school exposed to the most toxins ranking it in the 5th percentile. The next two Fort Worth schools were Oakhurst Elementary School and Calvary Academy, both in the Riverside area. Next were Meacham Middle and M.H. Moore Elementary schools, both on the north side of the city.
You can look up your school's rank here.
Pretty scary. I guess we have TNRCC and smoky Joe to thank.
Posted by: Andrew | December 08, 2008 at 07:47 PM
I looked up schools in Midlothian, and J.A. Vitovsky Elementary is listed TWICE, with two different addresses on the same street. One is ranked in the 1st percentile and the other in the 6th??? How can the same school be ranked so differently based on a block or two difference in the address? I think there is a serious problem with the USA computer modelling.
Posted by: Jon | December 09, 2008 at 10:05 AM