Residential exposure to air toxics is linked to lower grade point averages among school children in El Paso, Texas, USA

Clark-Reyna, Stephanie E.; Grineski, Sara E.; Collins, Timothy W.

doi:10.1007/s11111-015-0241-8

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Children in this sample did report greater cost-related barriers to accessing health care than did US Hispanic children more generally (Balcazar et al 2015). The confluence of social and environmental risk factors creates a situation of ‘multiple jeopardy’ for many El Paso school children (Clark-Reyna et al 2015). The reduced GPA among children exposed to HAPs at school is a disadvantage that contributes to an uneven playing field, which further decreases these children’s life chances, compared to their more advantaged counterparts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While a multi-level model permits the inclusion of home and school HAP exposure in the same model, we were unable to consider both due to collinearity, even though home site HAP exposure significantly influences children’s GPA (Clark-Reyna et al 2015). This study focused on a single setting and findings may not be generalizable to other settings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We then recoded each subject area so that F=0; D=1; C=2; B=3; and A=4. The subject area scores were summed and divided by five to create the continuous GPA variable (Clark-Reyna et al 2015). Children performed well in school as the mean GPA was 3.3 out of 4.0.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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School-based exposure to hazardous air pollutants and grade point average: A multi-level study

Grineski

Clark-Reyna

Collins

2016

Environmental Research

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The problem of environmental health hazards around schools is serious but it has been neglected by researchers and analysts. This is concerning because children are highly susceptible to the effects of chemical hazards. Some ecological studies have demonstrated that higher school-level pollution is associated with lower aggregate school-level standardized test scores at school, likely related to increased respiratory illnesses and/or impaired cognitive development. However, an important question remains unexamined: How do school-level exposures impact individual children’s academic performance? To address this, we obtained socio-demographic and grades data from the parents of 1,888 fourth and fifth grade children in the El Paso (Texas, USA) Independent School District in 2012. El Paso is located on the US-side of the Mexican border and has a majority Mexican-origin population. School-based hazardous air pollution (HAP) exposure was calculated using census block-level US Environmental Protection Agency National Air Toxics Assessment risk estimates for respiratory and diesel particulate matter (PM). School-level demographics were obtained from the school district. Multi-level models adjusting for individual-level covariates (e.g., age, sex, race/ethnicity, English proficiency, and economic deprivation) and school-level covariates (e.g., percent of students economically disadvantaged and student-teacher ratio) showed that higher school-level HAPs were associated with lower individual-level grade point averages. An interquartile range increase in school-level HAP exposure was associated with an adjusted 0.11 to 0.40 point decrease in individual students’ grade point averages (GPAs), depending on HAP type and emission source. Respiratory risk from HAPs had a larger effect on GPA than did diesel PM risk. Non-road mobile and total respiratory risk had the largest effects on children’s GPA of all HAP variables studied and only mother’s level of education had a larger effect than those two variables on children’s GPA. The five school-level demographic indicators were only weakly associated with GPA. The study findings indicate the need for regulations on school siting and adjacent land uses to protect children’s environmental health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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School-based exposure to hazardous air pollutants and grade point average: A multi-level study

Grineski

Clark-Reyna

Collins

2016

Environmental Research

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“…Previous studies from Europe and North America indicate that socially deprived children may be more likely to be exposed to air pollution and its resulting health impacts, including acute and chronic respiratory and neurocognitive outcomes. 5,15 Yet very few studies have evaluated school exposure to industrial-related air pollution 9 or its association with levels of socio-economic deprivation. Moreover, no studies have evaluated correlations for varying indicators of socio-economic conditions of children.…”

Section: -13mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[1][2][3][4] Recent studies also indicate adverse effects of air pollution on childhood neurodevelopment and cognition. 5 Children are particularly vulnerable to the exposure to air pollution due to higher respiratory rates, larger lung-to-body size ratios, and more time spent outdoors than adults. 4 Further, children's organs and immune systems are in a critical period of development and thus the health effects of exposure to air pollution may be stronger.…”

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confidence: 99%

Socio-economic inequalities in exposure to industrial air pollution emissions in Quebec public schools

Batisse

Goudreau

Baumgartner³

et al. 2017

Can J Public Health

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OBJECTIVES:We aimed to assess the relationships between deprivation at Quebec public schools, their proximity to polluting industries, and their exposure to industrial air emission sources including ambient fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ). METHODS:We obtained four indicators of school deprivation using data from the 2006 Canadian census called the low-income threshold indicator, the neighbourhood SES indicator, and the social and material deprivation indicators of Pampalon. Using proximity spatial tools, we constructed three buffers of 2.5, 5 and 7.5 km around each school and summed up total emissions of PM 2.5 , SO 2 and NO 2 for each school. Industrial air emissions were estimated using data from the 2006 Canadian National Pollutant Release Inventory.The Pearson correlations and LOESS regressions and natural log-transformed industrial air emissions were evaluated for Quebec public schools within the three buffers. RESULTS:Of the 2189 public schools in Quebec, 608 (27.8%), 1108 (50.6%) and 1384 (63.2%) schools were located near at least one industry emitting one or more pollutants of interest in buffers of 2.5 km, 5 km and 7.5 km of schools respectively. Weak positive Pearson correlations (r) were found between logtransformed tons of industrial emissions of PM 2.5 , SO 2 and NO 2 and both the social deprivation (r = {0.23; 0.33}) and low-income threshold (r = {0.17; 0.29}) indicators in a buffer of 2.5 km. However, we found negative associations between emissions and the neighbourhood SES (r = {0.06; 0.16}) and material deprivation (r = {−0.04; 0.08}) indicators.CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that schools in Quebec with higher rates of socio-economic deprivation among their students may be more likely to be exposed to higher emissions of industrial air pollutants.KEY WORDS: Air pollution; child; industry; school; social class La traduction du résumé se trouve à la fin de l'article.

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Ethnic and border differences on blood cancer presentation and outcomes: A Texas population‐based study

Bencomo‐Alvarez

Gonzalez

Rubio

et al. 2020

Cancer

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Background The Texas/Chihuahua (US/Mexico) border is a medically underserved region with many reported barriers for health care access. Although Hispanic ethnicity is associated with health disparities for many different diseases, the population‐based estimates of incidence and survival for patients with blood cancer along the border are unknown. The authors hypothesized that Hispanic ethnicity and border proximity is associated with poor blood cancer outcomes. Methods Data from the Texas Cancer Registry (1995‐2016) were used to investigate the primary exposures of patient ethnicity (Hispanic vs non‐Hispanic) and geographic location (border vs non‐border). Other confounders and covariates included sex, age, year of diagnosis, rurality, insurance status, poverty indicators, and comorbidities. The Mantel‐Haenszel method and Cox regression analyses were used to determine adjusted effects of ethnicity and border proximity on the relative risk (RR) and survival of patients with different blood cancer types. Results Hispanic patients were diagnosed at a younger age than non‐Hispanic patients and presented with increased comorbidities. Whereas non‐Hispanics had a higher incidence of developing blood cancer compared with Hispanics overall, Hispanics demonstrated a higher incidence of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (RR, 1.92; 95% CI, 1.79‐2.08; P < .001) with worse outcomes. Hispanics from the Texas/Chihuahua border demonstrated a higher incidence of chronic myeloid leukemia (RR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.07‐1.51; P = .02) and acute myeloid leukemia (RR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.04‐1.33; P = .0009) compared with Hispanics living elsewhere in Texas. Conclusions Hispanic ethnicity and border proximity were associated with a poor presentation and an adverse prognosis despite the younger age of diagnosis. Future studies should explore differences in disease biology and treatment strategies that could drive these regional disparities.

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Residential exposure to air toxics is linked to lower grade point averages among school children in El Paso, Texas, USA

Cited by 18 publications

References 57 publications

School-based exposure to hazardous air pollutants and grade point average: A multi-level study

School-based exposure to hazardous air pollutants and grade point average: A multi-level study

Socio-economic inequalities in exposure to industrial air pollution emissions in Quebec public schools

Ethnic and border differences on blood cancer presentation and outcomes: A Texas population‐based study

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