EPA to Test Air at Mississippi School

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Mississippi Department of Environmental quality will soon be teaming up to test for air pollution at a school in Enterprise, Mississippi. MPB's Stephen Koranda reports.

The study is aimed at making sure students like these playing basketball at Enterprise high school are breathing air that's safe. Enterprise high school, in the tiny east central Mississippi town, is one of 62 schools nationwide selected to watch for air pollution. There aren’t any major industries that are obvious polluters in the area, so School Superintendent Arthur McMillan was surprised when he heard about the study.

“Even car emissions, they talk about car emissions and if you went to the coast or Jackson, somewhere where they have enough cars, but you look at ours and it’s not that.”

The study was partially motivated by an article in USA Today that said the air around hundreds of schools could be polluted. Maya Rao with MDEQ, says the state already monitors for pollutants and the levels don’t exceed standards... but because of possible adverse health effects, they still take the issue very seriously.

“It affects a lot of people, and the amount of people exposed to air pollution is a huge amount because it’s air you breathe day in and day out. More people come in contact with air than any other medium, so it’s extremely important and there are lots of things which we can do to reduce air pollution.”

EPA used computer models to help choose areas where pollution could be a problem and then chose schools of every type, from large urban schools to small rural ones like Enterprise High. The air sampling will begin in July with results available in August.