Healthy Schools PA maps environmental risks near our kids

How do environmental risk factors like air emissions, gas wells and active rail lines affect our children in the classroom? According to Women for a Healthy Environment, they often negatively impact a student’s ability to consistently attend school and learn.

To help raise awareness and minimize this impact, Women for a Healthy Environment recently launched Healthy Schools Pennsylvania, a new program that works with parents, teachers, school administrators, faculty and students to make schools in Pennsylvania healthier settings for learning.

In conjunction with this effort is the release of a first-of-its-kind interactive map. The map uses publicly available data to identify potential environmental hazards within a one-mile radius of a public school building—covering a region that includes more than 336,000 students in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Parents can find their child’s school on the map, and then search for surrounding visual markers representing environmental hazards. Red circles indicate a high number of potential hazards, and each hazard is described at greater length on the story map.

Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, executive director of Women for a Healthy Environment, describes air pollution from nearby sources as one of the biggest risk factors in our region. “School buildings are not sealed systems, meaning that outdoor air containing fine particles or harmful gases has the ability to penetrate the indoor environment. And unfortunately, air pollution comes from each of the hazards identified in the map.”

The map also reveals that one school in Greene County has five active mining sites within a mile of the building, and one school district in Washington County has 40 active Marcellus wells within the district. (Parents can sign Healthy Schools Pennsylvania’s petition requesting that the PA Department of Environmental Protection require gas drilling outside of a one-mile buffer of any school or playground). Additionally, many of the Pittsburgh Public Schools have high exposures to multiple air emission sources and active rail lines.

Chapkis encourages parents to use the map as a starting point to identify these hazards, and then further investigate what is near their child’s school. From there, she hopes parents will feel more empowered to take action and voice concerns to school boards. “Raising awareness with the school administration and school board is a great first step,” she says. “A second step is to contact our organization to discuss opportunities to work together. Our staff can assist the school community with development and implementation of practices that create a healthier and greener learning environment.”

Making schools healthier and greener will be most effective when parents, schools and organizations like Healthy Schools Pennsylvania work together. “We envision this map as expanding our current effort of working with schools. It is also a great opportunity for parents to learn about the many ways they can help the school implement green and healthy practices. We can assist them through that process.”

Parents can find their schools on the map, as well as more information and ways to take action at healthyschoolspa.org.

Featured photo by TTstudio