Impact of school location on children’s air pollution exposure

ABSTRACT

The role of school location in children’s air pollution exposure and ability to actively commute is a growing policy issue. Well-documented health impacts associated with near-roadway exposures have led school districts to consider school sites in cleaner air quality environments requiring school bus transportation. We analyze children’s traffic-related air pollution exposure across an average Detroit school day to assess whether the benefits of reduced air pollution exposure at cleaner school sites are eroded by the need to transport students by bus or private vehicle. We simulated two school attendance scenarios using modeled hourly pollutant concentrations over the school day to understand how air pollution exposure may vary by school location and commute mode. We found that busing children from a high-traffic neighborhood to a school 19 km away in a low-traffic environment resulted in average daily exposures two to three times higher than children walking to a local school in the high-traffic environment.  Health benefits of siting schools away from high-volume roadways may be diminished by pollution exposure during bus commutes. School districts cannot simply select sites with low levels of air pollution, but must carefully analyze tradeoffs between location, transportation, and pollution exposure.

Acknowledgments

We thank Chang Shih Ying of UNC Chapel Hill’s Institute for the Environment; Philip McDaniel, GIS Librarian at UNC Chapel Hill; and Ian Hamilton, master’s student of City & Regional Planning at UNC Chapel Hill at the time of writing for their assistance with this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No conflicts of interest to declare.

Notes

1. 2014 dollars.

Additional information

Funding

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, through its Office of Research and Development, partially funded and collaborated in this research under Contract EP-D-12-044 to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This paper has been subjected to Agency review and approved for publication. Approval does not signify that the contents reflect the views of the Agency, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

Notes on contributors

Mary K. Wolfe

Mary K. Wolfe is a doctoral candidate in the Department of City & Regional Planning at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Noreen C. McDonald

Noreen C. McDonald is the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Professor and Chair of City & Regional Planning at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Saravanan Arunachalam

Saravanan Arunachalam is a Research Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute for the Environment at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Richard Baldauf

Richard Baldauf is senior research engineer with the U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development and the Office of Transportation and Air Quality.

Alejandro Valencia

Alejandro Valencia was a research associate in the Institute for the Environment at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the time of writing, and is now a doctoral student in the Environmental Sciences and Engineering Department at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.