Milman, O. (2018, February 01). Air pollution: Black, Hispanic and poor students
most at risk from toxins – study. Retrieved August 2, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/feb/01/schools-across-the-us-exposed-to-air-pollution-hildren-are-facing-risks
Black, Hispanic and low-income students are at the highest risk of exposure to harmful toxins at school. Researchers Grineski and Collins classified schools based off their level of exposure to over a dozen neurotoxins. They discovered some alarming statistics such as that five of the 10 most polluted school areas have non-white populations of over 20%. New York and New Jersey are suffering the most from these pollutants. These toxins not only affect the health but the education of these students. Only 12% of high schoolers in Camden meet expectations in English language tests.
This article indicates the immense effect of industrialization on our society. Just as the textbook explains, overpopulation alongside industrialization is placing many people in unhealthy conditions and traumatizing the planet’s well being. I found the connection to education equality especially interesting because I now feel that aiming to lessen the amount of environmental injustice could aid many in acquiring better jobs. It goes to show the extent to which the environment’s well being and humans’ wellbeing act in unison.
Overpopulation is having a harmful effect on our environment and humanity. It is very sad to me that lower income students are the majority suffering from harmful toxins in schools. Schools should be regularly check for toxins, so students can continue there education in healthy surroundings.
Is anything being done to better the toxins levels in low-income schools?
This is quite interesting yet very devastating. Who would have thought that people of color would have been suffering the most in exposure to toxins like these. Was there any mentions of regulations that are made when schools are more exposed to pollution? If not what do you think could be done in order to improve the health of these students and communities?
Thanks so much for commenting! There are regulations that have attempted to help the indues, but none have proven very valuable. There is little the schools can do but move the school further from the road, for traffic is a huge contributor to pollutants in the air. Some schools have attempted to upgrade their filtration systems however this does not help much and is a short term fix for the problem.