Lifetime cancer risks from hazardous air pollutants in US public school districts

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 854-860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Elizabeth Grineski ◽  
Timothy Collins
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
School District ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Air Pollutants ◽  
National Level ◽  
District Level ◽  
Social Disparities ◽  
Hazardous Air Pollutants ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Lifetime Cancer Risk

BackgroundChildren are sensitive to the health impacts of environmental contaminants, but research assessing outdoor environmental exposures for children and schools is underdeveloped. There are no national-level studies examining geographical and social disparities in air pollution exposure for children in school districts. Focusing on school districts is important because they are meaningful decision-making entities for schools.MethodsUsing data from the National Air Toxics Assessment, we spatially reallocated lifetime cancer risk (LCR) from hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) within US school district boundaries, and paired those estimates with school district level sociodemographic measures obtained through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series National Historic Geographic Information System. We employed local Moran’s I to identify district-level hotpots and generalised estimating equations (GEEs) to quantify risk disparities.ResultsWe identified hotspots of elevated LCR from all sources of HAPs (called ‘total’). A regional hotspot extends throughout the southeastern USA and smaller regional hotspots are present in southern Arizona, southern California and in California’s central valley. School districts with higher proportions of children, children with disabilities, foreign-born children, black children and multiracial/other race children, and lower proportions of Native American children, had greater total LCR (p<0.001). The effect of poverty on total LCR (p<0.001) was nonlinear; the lowest and highest poverty districts had lower total LCR.ConclusionsGeographical and social disparities in LCR across US school districts may be affecting children’s health and future potential. This new knowledge can inform policy changes, as school districts can advocate for the environmental health of children.

A Counternarrative Autoethnography Exploring School Districts’ Role in Reproducing Racism: Willful Blindness to Racial Inequities

2015 ◽  
Vol 117 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad A. Khalifa ◽  
Felecia Briscoe
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
District Level ◽  
Achievement Gaps ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Administrative Practices ◽  
District Administrators ◽  
Phone Calls ◽  
School District Administrators

Background Racialized suspension gaps are logically and empirically associated with racial achievement gaps and both gaps indicate the endurance of racism in American education. In recent U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Office of Civil Rights data, it was revealed that nationally, Black boys are four times more likely to be suspended than White boys. In some geographic areas and for certain offenses, some intersections of race, class, and gender are dozens of times more likely to be suspended for than others. Although most educational leaders and district-level official express disapproval of racism in schools, racialized gaps in achievement and discipline stubbornly persist. Purpose/Objective The purpose of this study was to examine how school district-level administrators react to investigations and indications of racism in their school districts. It is relevant because in many school districts that have disciplinary and achievement gaps, the administrators ostensibly and publically express a hope to reduce or eliminate the racist trends. Yet, one administration after another, they seem unable to disrupt the racially oppressive discipline and achievement gaps. In this study, we examined administrators’ responses to our requests about their districts’ racialized disaggregated disciplinary data, and their responses to our sharing of our findings with them. We use counternarrative autoethnography to describe that school district administrators play a significant role in maintaining practices that reproduce racial oppression in schools. Setting This study was conducted in large urban school districts in Texas. The profiled districts were predominantly Latino; however one district was over 90% Latino and the other just slightly more than half with sizable White and Black student populations in some schools and areas. Participants As this is an autoethnography, we are the primary participants of this study; we interrogate our experiences with school district administrators in our investigations of racial disciplinary gaps. Research Design Our autoethnography is counternarrative, as it counters bureaucratic narratives of impartiality, colorblindness, and objectivity espoused by school districts. In addition to our own self-interviews, we base our counternarrative on the examination of 11 phone calls and 35 email exchanges with district administration, and on field-notes taken during seven site visits. These collective experiences and data sources informed our counternarratives, and led to our findings. Our research encompasses three phases. The initial phase was our attempt to obtain disciplinary data from various school districts in Texas. Only two school districts made the data accessible to us, despite being legally obligated to do so. For the second phase of our study we calculated risk ratios from those two school districts to determine how many more times African Americans and Latinos are suspended than Whites in all of the schools of TXD1 and TXD2. The third phase was the district administrators’ reactions to our presentation of our findings in regards to their district schools with the most egregious disciplinary gaps. Based on the administrative responses to them, we thought that it was important to highlight our experiences through a counternarrative autoethnography. Conclusions From our qualitative data analysis we theorize three bureaucratic administrative responses contributed to the maintenance of racism in school—(1) the administrators discursive avoidance of issues of racial marginalization; (2) the tendency of bureaucratic systems to protect their own interests and ways of operating, even those ways of operating that are racist; and (3), the (perhaps inadvertent) protection of leadership practices that have resulted in such racial marginalization. These responses were enacted through four technical–rational/bureaucratic administrative practices: subversive, defensive, ambiguous, and negligent.

Unification and Its Discontents

2016 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-16
Author(s):  
Brian Kovalesky
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School District ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Los Angeles County ◽  
The State ◽  
White Working Class ◽  
City Schools

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, during the height of protests and actions by civil rights activists around de facto school segregation in the Los Angeles area, the residents of a group of small cities just southeast of the City of Los Angeles fought to break away from the Los Angeles City Schools and create a new, independent school district—one that would help preserve racially segregated schools in the area. The “Four Cities” coalition was comprised of residents of the majority white, working-class cities of Vernon, Maywood, Huntington Park, and Bell—all of which had joined the Los Angeles City Schools in the 1920s and 1930s rather than continue to operate local districts. The coalition later expanded to include residents of the cities of South Gate, Cudahy, and some unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, although Vernon was eventually excluded. The Four Cities coalition petitioned for the new district in response to a planned merger of the Los Angeles City Schools—until this time comprised of separate elementary and high school districts—into the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The coalition's strategy was to utilize a provision of the district unification process that allowed citizens to petition for reconfiguration or redrawing of boundaries. Unification was encouraged by the California State Board of Education and legislature in order to combine the administrative functions of separate primary and secondary school districts—the dominant model up to this time—to better serve the state's rapidly growing population of children and their educational needs, and was being deliberated in communities across the state and throughout Los Angeles County. The debates at the time over school district unification in the Greater Los Angeles area, like the one over the Four Cities proposal, were inextricably tied to larger issues, such as taxation, control of community institutions, the size and role of state and county government, and racial segregation. At the same time that civil rights activists in the area and the state government alike were articulating a vision of public schools that was more inclusive and demanded larger-scale, consolidated administration, the unification process reveals an often-overlooked grassroots activism among residents of the majority white, working-class cities surrounding Los Angeles that put forward a vision of exclusionary, smaller-scale school districts based on notions of local control and what they termed “community identity.”

Evaluating hazardous air pollutants in Australia

Toxicology ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 181-182 ◽  
pp. 361-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.L Hinwood ◽  
P.N Di Marco
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Hazardous Air Pollutants

Sustainability Certification and Green Public Procurement: Ideals and Outcomes in a New Jersey School District

2021 ◽  
pp. 097340822110125
Author(s):  
Cluny Mendez ◽  
Christopher L. Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
New Jersey ◽  
School District ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Public Procurement ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Green Public Procurement ◽  
The Subject

The implementation of sustainability and green public procurement (GPP) initiatives in school districts has been the subject of some debate; questions over definitions and programme goals have led to inconsistency and concerns about programme achievements. The legitimacy of programmes rests not only with the announcement of policy by officials, but with adherence to policy and staff buy-in. This study examines barriers districts face, and makes recommendations based upon district experience on ways to successfully implement sustainability and GPP initiatives. A review of the literature on GPP and legitimacy in the execution of public functions within the education domain begins the study. Major components relative to best practices for GPP programmes are studied through the review of GPP-related documents from a school district in New Jersey considered as an exemplar of such programmes. Analysis of an interview with the district’s representatives suggests that, despite the normative approval such programmes receive, and widespread understanding of the rationale for pursuing such initiatives, there remain critical failings in implementation of these programmes, stemming from education, resourcing of initiatives and prioritization of green procurement in relation to other district priorities. The study concludes with lessons learned from this case, which is important given its positioning within New Jersey as an exemplar and recommendations for future research where work in this area is needed.

scholarly journals Mitigating Childhood Food Insecurity during COVID-19: A Qualitative Study of how School Districts in California’s San Joaquin Valley Responded to Growing Needs

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Ashley H. Jowell ◽  
Janine S. Bruce ◽  
Gabriela V. Escobar ◽  
Valeria M. Ordonez ◽  
Christina A. Hecht ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Distribution Systems ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
San Joaquin Valley ◽  
School Meal ◽  
Fresh Foods

Abstract Objectives: To explore best practices and challenges in providing school meals during COVID-19 in a low-income, predominantly Latino, urban-rural region. Design: Semi structured interviews with school district stakeholders and focus groups with parents were conducted to explore school meal provision during COVID-19 from June to August 2020. Data was coded and themes were identified to guide analysis. Community organizations were involved in all aspects of study design, recruitment, data collection, and analysis. Setting: Six school districts in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Participants: School district stakeholders (n=11) included food service directors, school superintendents, and community partners (e.g., funders, food co-operative). Focus groups (n=6) were comprised of parents (n=29) of children participating in school meal programs. Results: COVID-19-related challenges for districts included developing safe meal distribution systems, boosting low participation, covering COVID-19-related costs, and staying informed of policy changes. Barriers for families included transportation difficulties, safety concerns, and a lack of fresh foods. Innovative strategies to address obstacles included pandemic-EBT, bus-stop delivery, community pick-up locations, batched meals, and leveraging partner resources. Conclusions: A focus on fresher, more appealing meals and greater communication between school officials and parents could boost participation. Districts that leveraged external partnerships were better equipped to provide meals during pandemic conditions. In addition, policies increasing access to fresh foods and capitalizing on USDA waivers could boost school meal participation. Finally, partnering with community organizations and acting upon parent feedback could improve school meal systems, and in combination with pandemic-EBT, address childhood food insecurity.

Removing NOx Pollution by Photocatalytic Building Materials in Real-Life: Evaluation of Existing Field Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 02 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pernille D. Pedersen ◽  
Nina Lock ◽  
Henrik Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollutants ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Objective Evaluation ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Hazardous Air Pollutants

: The NOx gasses (NO and NO2) are among the most important air pollutants, due to the toxicity of NO2, as well as the role of NOx in the tropospheric oxidation of Volatile Organic Carbons (VOCs), contributing to the formation of other hazardous air pollutants. Air pollution is one of the biggest health threats world-wide, hence reducing NOx levels is an important objective of the UN sustainable development goals, e.g. #3, “Good health and well-being” and #11 “Sustainable cities and communities”. Photocatalysis using TiO2 and light is a promising technique for removing NOx along with other pollutants, as demonstrated on laboratory scale. Furthermore, a long range of real-life test studies of varying scales have been conducted during the past two decades. The results of these studies have been conflicting, with some studies reporting no effect on the ambient air quality and others reporting significant reductions of NOx level. However, the studies are very difficult to compare and assess due to the very different approaches used, which consequently vary in quality. In this review, we aim to develop a set of objective evaluation criteria to assess the quality of the individual studies in order to simplify the interpretation and comparison of the existing studies. Moreover, we propose some guidelines for future test-studies. Furthermore, the approaches and main conclusions from 23 studies are independently assessed and discussed herein.

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