USA Today Reports Possible Toxic Air in Metro School

A just-published study suggests thousands of children across the country -- including some in the metro -- may be breathing in toxic air every day at school, putting them at greater risk of developing cancer.

Tuesday, December 9th 2008, 8:34 pm

By: News 9


By Alex Cameron, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A just-published study suggests thousands of children across the country -- including some in the metro -- may be breathing in toxic air every day at school, putting them at greater risk of developing cancer.

USA Today broke the story "Air tests reveal elevated levels of toxics at schools". They tested the air outside 95 schools in 30 states -- one of the schools where they tested is in Midwest City.

Read the USA Today Report

Soldier Creek Elementary School sits at the intersection of southeast 15th and Douglas and according to the USA Today study the air there has elevated levels of Benzene and Chromium that are carcinogens that can increase a person's risk of developing cancer.

But state environmental officials said some of the information is misleading.

"Those chemicals can be carcinogenic, however, looking at the USA Today story, that makes the assumption that all of the chromium found near Soldier Creek Elementary is carcinogenic; DEQ believes that that information is false," Skylar McElhany with the Department of Environmental Quality said.

Still, DEQ is planning to conduct its own, more thorough, air monitoring there acknowledging that there does seem to be at least some unhealthy level of pollution possibly coming from Tinker Air Force Base.

"It's possible, and like I said, we do plan to put a monitoring site near Tinker to see what may be going on out there," McElhany said.

Officials with the Mid-Del School District said they learned of the study and its results only Tuesday. They urge parents not to worry.

"Any time something is in the news like this, it may heighten concerns, but I can say, as a parent of a Mid-Del student, I feel perfectly safe sending my children to school here in this district," Stacy Boyer with Midwest City-Del City Schools said.

USA Today chose locations to test the air using a government computer model that shows how industrial emissions are dispersed across the country. They collected the data over a span of several days this fall.

DEQ officials don't know how soon they'll begin their air monitoring program in the metro. They've been doing it in Tulsa for the past couple of years.

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