Print |
E-mail to a friend
NEWS
Department of Environmental Protection to monitor toxic air pollutants at three schools
HUNTINGTON -- The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection will monitor toxic air pollutants at three schools, including one in Huntington, according to a press release.
The agency's Division of Air Quality will install air monitoring devices at the Cabell County Career Technology Center in Huntington, Follansbee Middle School in Follansbee and Neale Elementary School in Vienna.
"We're not measuring every pollutant at every site," Tim Carroll, assistant chief of air monitoring, said in the release. "We're monitoring for compounds that could be of concern."
The monitors will be at each site for at least 60 days and a 24-hour sample will be collected every six days. A total of 10 samples at each site will be analyzed for air toxins of potential concern.
The first device was installed at Follansbee Middle on Tuesday, July 7. Preparations at the other two West Virginia sites will begin in the next few weeks, Carroll said.
Monitors should be ready for operation by Tuesday, Aug. 11, about two weeks before the first day of school in West Virginia.
A 2008 USA Today study said Highlawn Elementary, Enslow Middle School and the Cabell County Career Technology Center are all located in one of the worst areas in the country when it comes to air quality -- among the worst 70 of more than 127,000 schools.
