By Linda MacKay

Scientists and educators over the past five years have been pointing to research which shows that air pollution has an impact on the development of children’s lungs and on their ability to learn.

At the El Tejon Unified School District Board meeting on Valentine’s Day, (Wednesday, Feb. 14) I was asked by board member Anita Anderson to make a small presentation during the public comment period on the significance of the air quality data that has come from the mobile air monitor currently located near Interstate 5 in the Caltrans sandlot next to Flying J.

I explained to the board that the data provided to us over the last year has shown there has been a significant number of days when the air was unhealthy this past year.

During last summer the data showed that we had very few 24-hour days when the air quality measured within the healthy range for the entire day. El Tejon School and Frazier Mountain High School are both adjacent to the I-5.

Two years ago, California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, gave several speeches about this issue. Recently, the Center for Environmental Health at University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine produced new data about the effect of diesel emissions on children’s lungs.

The mobile air monitor at the Caltrans lot was loaned to our area for one year by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). CARB plans to pull the unit out in April of this year.

I spoke with the school board with the hope that they will consider requesting that CARB move the mobile air monitor onto the El Tejon middle school grounds. There is reason to believe that the air quality on the school grounds may be measurably higher in pollutants than the Flying J location because of the school grounds’ lower elevation and the visible smog that moves from the San Joaquin Valley to surround that region.

The board directed me to make arrangements to speak with our school interim district superintendent, Ms. Shelly Mason, before the next school board meeting in March. I hope the item will be put onto the agenda as an action item for the March board meeting.

Data from an air monitor located on the school grounds would be valuable for our community to have.

Only when we know where we are and what we have can we take the best measures to protect the health and safety of our children and staff who attend the school on a regular basis.

–Added reporting by P. Hedlund

This is part of the February 23, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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