Ambient NO2 Air Pollution and Public Schools in the United States: Relationships with Urbanicity, Race-Ethnicity, and Income

Matthew J Bechle; Dylan B Millet; Julian D Marshall

doi:10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00507

Ambient NO₂ Air Pollution and Public Schools in the United States: Relationships with Urbanicity, Race-Ethnicity, and Income

Environ Sci Technol Lett. 2023 Sep 24;10(10):844-850. doi: 10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00507. eCollection 2023 Oct 10.

Authors

Matthew J Bechle¹, Dylan B Millet², Julian D Marshall¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, 201 More Hall, Seattle, Washington 98195, United States.
² Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, University of Minnesota, 439 Borlaug Hall, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108, United States.

PMID: 37840817
PMCID: PMC10569168 (available on 2024-09-24)
DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00507

Abstract

Schools may have important impacts on children's exposure to ambient air pollution, yet ambient air quality at schools is not consistently tracked. We characterize ambient air quality at home and school locations in the United States using satellite-based empirical model (i.e., land use regression) estimates of outdoor annual nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). We report disparities by race-ethnicity and impoverishment status, and investigate differences by level of urbanicity. Average NO₂ levels at home and school for racial-ethnic minoritized students are 18-22% higher than average (and 37-39% higher than for non-Hispanic, white students). Minoritized students are less likely than their white peers to live (0.55 times) and attend school (0.58 times) in areas below the World Health Organization's NO₂ guideline. Predominantly minoritized schools (i.e., >50% minoritized students) are less likely than predominantly white schools (0.43 times) to be in locations below the guideline. Income and race-ethnicity impacts are intertwined, yet in large cities, racial disparities persist after controlling for income.