EPA to Follow Up Air Monitoring at South Allegheny
School toxin levels cause for concern
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
11 November 2011
By Don Hopey
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will conduct at least
another six months of air pollution monitoring outside the South
Allegheny Middle/High School in Liberty to determine if long-term
exposure to hazardous air pollutants emitted by the U.S. Steel
Corp.'s Clairton Coke Works pose a health hazard.
As part of EPA's Schools Air Toxics Monitoring initiative, the
agency tested air outside 63 schools in 22 states in an effort to
determine if long-term exposure to air toxics poses health
concerns for school children, teachers and staff. The EPA Thursday
requested follow-up monitoring at South Allegheny and 14 other
schools.
"South Allegheny may potentially be of concern," said Bonnie
Smith, an EPA spokeswoman. "That's why we've asked for more
monitoring to get additional information to better characterize
the effects of long-term exposure."
Ms. Smith said the Allegheny County Health Department has been
asked to perform the monitoring, which will target a host of
hazardous air pollutants associated with coke oven emissions,
including benzene, arsenic, soot, volatile organic compounds,
benzo(a)pyrene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Some of those
air toxics are known carcinogens.
The EPA also announced Thursday that monitoring of air pollutants
at Sto-Rox Elementary and Middle schools in McKees Rocks and
Clairton Educational Center in Clairton has not found toxics at
levels that pose significant health concerns. Monitoring at those
schools has been discontinued.
The health department recommended the monitoring of the Sto-Rox
school sites because they are located near the Shenango Coke Works
and two chemical manufacturing plants on Neville Island that emit
air toxics, the EPA said.
The EPA said emissions from coke ovens were detected in the air
near both the Clairton Educational Center and South Allegheny
Middle/High School, but the level of the emissions at Clairton was
"below levels of significant concern."
Laura Thomson, a spokeswoman for the South Allegheny School
District, said the findings of EPA's monitoring work were "a
concern" for the children and for those staff who both work and
live in the community. The report reinforces the need for the
Heinz Endowments-initiated "Breathe Project," which seeks
improvements in local and regional air quality.
Final EPA reports on the monitoring done at Sto-Rox, Clairton and
South Allegheny schools are available at http://www.epa.gov/schoolair/schools.html.
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.