EPA pick pledges to address toxic hot spots near schools
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama's choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency promised Wednesday that she would deploy federal regulators to check air quality around schools in response to a USA TODAY investigation that identified hundreds of schools that appeared to be in toxic hot spots.
The nominee, Lisa Jackson, told members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that she would "send investigators and samplers out to verify the extent of the problem" and "mobilize" agency efforts within 30 days of her confirmation. Parents, she said, "have a right to know their children are safe when they are in school."
Her pledge to the committee, which is considering her nomination, followed USA TODAY stories that used government data and the newspaper's own air monitoring to examine industrial pollution outside schools from coast to coast. Although EPA has collected data on the amount of toxic chemicals that industries release and created a computer model showing the path those chemicals travel, the agency has never analyzed the impact on schools.
The consensus among scientists is that children are especially susceptible to toxic chemicals, which can cause respiratory illnesses, cancer or other diseases.
USA TODAY identified 435 schools in locations where the air outside appeared more dangerous than at an Ohio elementary school shut down three years ago. That school, Meredith Hitchens Elementary, was closed after Ohio officials found carcinogens outside at 50 times what the state considers acceptable.
The committee's chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., insisted that Jackson promise to send EPA experts to schools in potential hot spots to address health risks. Boxer's staff displayed enlarged copies of USA TODAY's front page as she questioned Jackson.
"Do I have your commitment that. .. you will immediately ensure that EPA will quickly deploy its experts to schools where there is an indication that there is a threat from toxic air pollution?" Boxer asked. "USA TODAY did what investigative journalists do, which is to find a problem that needs answers," Jackson said. She pledged to get answers.
