'Junk science' or cause for alarm?

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Published: December 11, 2008

MCT REGIONAL NEWS

By Alonzo Weston

St. Joseph News-Press, Mo.

(MCT)

Dec. 11--A regional Environmental Protection Agency official downplayed a newspaper report that said the air quality around a St. Joseph elementary school is extremely toxic.

USA Today released a study this week that examined the impact of industrial pollution outside schools across the country. Lake Contrary Elementary School was one of 435 schools listed that had air surrounding the school containing a high level of toxic chemicals. The South Side school at 1800 Alabama St. is located near an industrial area.

But Dave Bryan, an EPA spokesperson, called the study inaccurate. He said the tools used in the study merely gave a broad overall screening of the air quality.

''It does not separate the emissions inside the factory, those things we call source emissions (with) the stuff that comes out of the smokestack," Mr. Bryan said. "Most of the emissions we're talking about in St. Joe are inside the building, they never get out of the building."

Mr. Bryan added that it was a noble effort by USA Today to bring awareness to air pollution around our schools. Unfortunately, it used the wrong tools and no one actually visited the area, he said.

''No one should be alarmed because this doesn't actually give a good picture of what the air quality is like on the ground in St. Joe," Mr. Bryan said. "What they're basically doing is taking industrial information, adding it together and saying these are the toxins that are in the air."

Some parents of Lake Contrary students, however, still expressed alarm at the newspaper's findings.

Rich and Karin Mauzey's 5-year-old son Kason attends preschool at Lake Contrary. Mr. Mauzey said after hearing about the report, he was concerned about his son's health.

''It's one thing to have someone come up and say it, but to have it published in a national newspaper and the school he's going to is singled out, yeah that got me kind of concerned," Mr. Mauzey said.

Mary Robison, who was picking up her grandson Gage from Lake Contrary Wednesday, said she hadn't heard about the report. However, once she did, it worried her.

''It's scary cause you don't know what it's going to cause," she said.

Rick Hartigan, St. Joseph School District chief operating officer, referred to the USA Today report as "junk science." Besides that, the district takes special precautions to ensure that the air quality is safe in all its schools.

''It's recommended we changed the interior air volume five times per hour and we do that at Lake Contrary," he said.

It's done with a combination of rooftop units and uni-vents inside the school, he said. The school district also uses a number of green practices, like using safe cleaning chemicals and entry rugs that are made of a certain material, to capture foreign substances.

''We have no control over the outside air but what we can control is the interior air quality and we take that very seriously to make sure the air is always at an acceptable limit," Mr. Hartigan said.

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