EPA TOXICS MODEL CUTS SOME SITES FROM SCHOOL AIR MONITORING PLAN

摘要

EPA's use of a comprehensive air toxics model to help prioritize schools for its high-profile air monitoring program excludes some schools that were flagged on a list using a separate agency model, and local activists are raising concerns about what they see as an incomplete number of schools slated for air toxics testing.rnHowever, EPA's decision to use the National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) to prioritize schools for monitoring - rather than using its Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) model - is drawing praise from industry officials. They prefer the use of NATA over RSEI because, the sources say, NATA is a more comprehensive model that more accurately represents overall pollution, not just industrial releases.rnThe agency announced in March a $2.5 million program to monitor air for toxics at 62 schools in 22 states. The agency first started looking at the issue following a high-profile series of articles in USA Today, which used EPA's RSEI model to evaluate air quality around U.S. schools.