Children's Exposure to Diesel Exhaust on School Buses
This groundbreaking study has led to major changes in policy and the creation of agency agendas within the EPA and state departments of public health.
EPA's Six Common Air Pollutants
Students will be introduced to Ozone, particulate matter, and become familiar with the pollutants that the EPA monitors is determining the quality of air.
Air quality:
EPA :
http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_state&stateid=7
http://www.epa.gov/airnow/workshop_teachers/air_quality_resources_2011.pdf
The American Lung Association
http://www.stateoftheair.org/
CT Department of Environmental protection
http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?a=2684&q=321790&depNav_GID=1744&depNav=|
In addition to readings, we will take advantage of some presentations on the subject that have been well produced and are publicly available. This includes the curriculum written for New Haven Public Schools by the Stevens Institute for Technology. Clean School bus curriculum. http://www.ciese.org/curriculum/bus. It has some introductory information about the subject, as well as some exercises in calculating the impact of pollutants.
There are plenty of data and statistics available. The EPA maintains an air quality data mart http://www.epa.gov/ttn/airs/aqsdatamart/ which would allow for students to run different summaries of the statistics than those that that are calculated by the Federal standards. This will help students make comparisons between different summaries of distributions, and decide how best to quantify the level of air pollution in New Haven.
Asthma data sources:
CT Department of Public Health:
Asthma Data Fact Sheets for the Five Largest Cities in Connecticut 2009
Connecticut 2010 School Base Asthma Surveillance Report 2010
http://www.ct.gov/dph/cwp/view.asp?a=3137&q=398480
http://www.epa.gov/asthma/
Mapping
Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.nrdc.org/air/transportation/qbus.asp
http://maps.google.com/