Breathless: Schools, Air Toxics, and Environmental Justice in California

• Published in: Policy studies journal 2006-08, Vol.34 (3), p.337-362
• Main Authors: Pastor Jr, Manuel, Morello-Frosch, Rachel, Sadd, James L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; academic performance; Air pollution; Air pollution - United States - California; air toxics; Analysis; Asthma; California; Censuses; Child health; Children; Children & youth; Childrens health; Clean Air Act-US; Educational aspects; Environmental aspects; Environmental Degradation; Environmental health; Environmental impact analysis - United States; Environmental justice; Estimates; fixed effects regression; Health aspects; Learning; Minority & ethnic groups; Minority Groups; Outdoor air quality; Pollutants; Pollution - Social aspects; Polygons; racial disparity; Ratios; Schools; Social Justice; Statistical analysis; Students; Studies; Urban areas
• ISSN: 0190-292X; 1541-0072
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1541-0072.2006.00176.x

The exposure of children to environmental disamenities has emerged as a key policy concern in recent years, with some analysts and activists suggesting that minority children are disproportionately impacted. Utilizing a dataset that combines air toxics at the census tract level with school‐based demographic and other information, this article indicates disparate exposures for students of color in California schools and suggests that there may be negative impacts on one measure of academic performance, even after controlling for other factors usually associated with test scores. Policy implications include a special focus on school remediation and strengthening overall efforts to reduce emissions “hot spots.”