Chemical facilitiesOne in ten American schoolchildren in school near risky chemical facility
One year after the fertilizer facility explosion in West, Texas, which destroyed and severely damaged nearby schools, nearly one in ten American schoolchildren live and study within one mile of a potentially dangerous chemical facility. A new study shows that 4.6 million children at nearly 10,000 schools across the country are within a mile of a facility which produces, uses, or stores significant quantities of hazardous chemicals identified by EPA as particularly risky to human health or the environment if they are spilled, released into the air, or are involved in an explosion or fire.
One year after the fertilizer facility explosion in West, Texas, which destroyed and severely damaged nearby schools, an analysis by the Center for Effective Government finds that nearly one in ten American schoolchildren live and study within one mile of a potentially dangerous chemical facility.
The analysis, displayed through an online interactive map, shows that 4.6 million children at nearly 10,000 schools across the country are within a mile of a facility which reports to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Risk Management Program. A Center release notes that factories, refineries, and other facilities that report to the program produce, use, or store significant quantities of certain hazardous chemicals identified by EPA as particularly risky to human health or the environment if they are spilled, released into the air, or are involved in an explosion or fire.
“The number of children who are potentially in harm’s way is deeply troubling,” said Katherine McFate, president and CEO of the Center for Effective Government. “Minority and low-income kids bear the greatest risks, but no one is immune from this danger.”
The Center’s analysis found that California, Texas, and Illinois have the largest numbers of children at risk from dangerous chemicals. But the percentage of children at risk in other states like North Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska is alarming: about a third of children in these three states attend a school within a mile of a facility with known chemical hazards.
Sean Moulton, director of open government policy at the Center for Effective Government, noted, “In the year since the West, Texas disaster, we’ve seen workers killed, drinking water poisoned, and entire towns evacuated. In state after state, town after town, people have been hurt or worse because of inadequate oversight, aging public and private infrastructure, and chemical industry battles against stronger standards and safeguards.”
To make children safer in communities across the country, the Center and more than 100 other groups have called for stronger chemical information disclosure standards, better reporting to oversight agencies like the EPA and DHS, and more robust emergency response plans that are vetted with surrounding communities. But most importantly, the federal government must require that all facilities switch to inherently safer chemicals and processes whenever possible.
The new interactive map, from which this information was derived, is available online here. Visitors may zoom in to a particular local area to see whether their children’s schools are located near a chemical plant or storage facility. Users may also search the map by school name or facility name.
