Hunter’s Point Community Middle School (Photo: Inside Schools)
Sept. 3, 2019 By Allie Griffin
As if lead paint inside classrooms wasn’t worrisome enough, a new report shows that 39 public schools across Queens are near heavily polluting roadways.
Booming residential development, coupled with overcrowded school districts has made it difficult to find spaces large enough to build new schools, often leading the city to build on less-than-desirable lots near heavily trafficked roads.
These busy roads can potentially expose children and educators to high levels of pollution and possible health effects.
According to a new analysis from home search platform Localize.city, 244 public schools across the city are located within 500 feet of major highways and more are being built.
This week, P.S. 398 in Jackson Heights welcomes 476 students to a new $60 million five-story building that is just 200 feet from the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, according to the study.
In general, pollution levels are highest in areas within 500 feet of major roads and prolonged exposure to vehicular air pollution is linked to negative health effects such as impaired lung development in children and increased cancer risk, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“When parents debate how to rank their child’s pre-K programs or elementary schools, they often pay attention to the quality of the teaching, what kinds of art and enrichment is available and whether there’s a nice outdoor playground,” said Liat Halpern, an urban planner at Localize.city.
“They might not pay attention to hidden hazards of air quality, even though pollution could have a big impact on their children’s ability to learn. After all, kids attend city schools 180 days a year, often running around at recess every day, breathing in the air — and potentially toxic fine particulate matter,” Halpern continued. “We think it’s important for parents to have this kind of information when they’re making decisions about where to live because often their choices are linked to nearby schools.”
A recent working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research hypothesized that students who switch to schools with higher levels of traffic pollution tend to experience declines in test scores, increased behavioral incidents and greater absences.
The EPA recommends reducing traffic-related pollution exposure by upgrading filtration systems in classrooms.
The 39 schools in Queens with pollution risk according to Localize.city’s analysis are listed below:
1. P.S. 152 Gwendoline N. Alleyne School
2. J.H.S. 74 Nathaniel Hawthorne
3. George Washington Carver High School for the Sciences
4. P.S. 143 Louis Armstrong
5. P.S./I.S. 266
6. P.S./ IS 178 Holliswood
7. Queens High School of Teaching, Liberal Arts and the Sciences
8. Queens Preparatory Academy
9. P.S. 220 Edward Mandel
10. Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Education High School
11. P.S. 206 The Horace Harding School
12. The Riverview School
13. Queens Academy High School
14. Success Academy Charter School – South Jamaica
15. P.S. 38 Rosedale
16. P.S. 159
17. High School for Arts and Business
18. Community Voices Middle School
19. Preparatory Academy for Writers: A College Board School
20. P.S. 79 Francis Lewis
21. P.S. 131 Abigail Adams
22. P.S. 196 Grand Central Parkway
23. The Gordon Parks School
24. P.S./I.S. 208
25. P.S. 143 Louis Armstrong
26. Excelsior Preparatory High School
27. Academy of the City Charter School
28. P.S. 124 Osmond A. Church
29. J.H.S. 216 George J. Ryan
30. J.H.S. 202 Robert H. Goddard
31. Maspeth High School
32. P.S. Q004
33. P.S. 377
34. Academy for Careers in Television and Film
35. Collaborative Arts Middle School
36. Francis Lewis High School
37. Hunters Point Community Middle School
38. Robert H. Goddard High School of Communication Arts and Technology
39. P.S. 251 Queens
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11 Comments
More silly hysteria based nonsense: Sounds like a friend of somebody (Bill, Chirlane or Dept. of Education) has an air filtration system they need to sell and this is the warm up article to bilk and defraud the taxpayers by Billions.
Air quality is a problem everywhere –What’s the air quality of the subway? These children, educators and let’s not forget the rest of US –we all live near or in “high levels of pollution and possible health effects.”
plant more trees, stop erecting so many buildings which brings more people and moves some people to certain areas promoting overcrowding.
Also, Jimmy Van Bramer just gave Lions Group a sweet deal for more air rights in exchange for putting a school and playground under the BQE overpass which runs through LIC.
HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANYONE HAPPY? What kind of a monster puts a playground under a highway overpass?
Shame on you JVB and supporters alike. You’ve been drinking the Kool Aid for too long and your precious pocket of Queens has been devoured by over development, stale glass towers and high prices. Your neighbors are gone because they either sold or have been priced out. The transient nature of the area continues to skyrocket because developers and certain firms alike don’t give a shit if you can’t afford to live there………I was sad to leave Astoria, and NYC overall. There is a sense of longing I have for beautiful NYC every single day. Mainly for food, culture, meeting new people, classic and some new architecture, being able to hop on a train and be in the center of the world in 20 mins. I miss a lot of amazing people who make that city what it is. What I will not miss is the lack of accountability and enforcement the city provides to make sure it’s character and longstanding residents can survive. You give billionaires tax breaks while the working man and woman who erected those stale ugly billionaire’s row towers is forced out of his home because of rapidly rising costs, increasing rents, and the fact wages do not keep up.
I MISS AND LOVE YOU NYC, BUT NOT THE BULLSHIT!!!
Tell me again why developers should give a shit if you (vs the next person with money) can live in the City?
Trump said climate change is a hoax by China, do you really expect us to believe pollution exists?! That would make him an idiot!
It is a crowded city with lots of traffic. What do you want to do, bus all the kids out to the suburbs for school?
I’ll bet that every public school in Manhattan is near a heavily polluting road.
If you want less polluted roads:
(1) cut down on the ~150,000 ubers,lyfts,green cabs,yellow cabs that choke traffic 16 hours a day all over town or at least require most/all of them to be electric powered
(2) build out some public electric vehicle infrastructure so the average apartment dwelling NYC resident can have the option of an electric vehicle
Better still, provide New Yorkers with a safe, clean, modern, expanded and reliable subway system instead of a sclerotic, filthy, crowded, and decaying 20th century relic.
I don’t like the idea of being educated, the libruls are trying to get rid of future Trump voters
Conservatives always gotta make non-political things political. WHY?!?!?!!
You forgot to add that this brand new school in Jackson heights is across a bar and a few minutes away from the strip club.
Also this new Jackson heights school will not have an increased in traffic and pollution will stay the same. Kids were already living in the area.
Do not expect any help from a communist Governor !
More hysteria.
“476 students to a new $60 million five-story building”
60 million bucks and they can’t even get 500 students in there??? Graft: it’s how the unscrupulous get rich in New York City!