Estimating potential air quality impact of airports on children attending the surrounding schools

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To estimate the pollution impact of seven sample airports in California on the surrounding schools, routine high-quality observations of 1-min average wind direction and speed at the airports were used to calculate the time each school within a 10-km radius was downwind of each airport. We demonstrate 0.87 correlation between pollution levels and downwind time at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Depending on the airport size, between 10 and 15 years of data was collected and downwind times calculated for the school hours throughout the school-months of August to June. By comparing this data with the 2015–2016 student enrollment size and demographics of the neighboring schools, we have demonstrated that an estimated 65,409 (8.7%) students spend 1–6 h per day at school throughout the academic year with exposure to airport-related air pollution. However, a higher proportion of economically disadvantaged students (10.6%) experience aforementioned levels of exposure. The level of exposure does not appear to be affected by the proposed 1-h delay in the school starting time that is intended to reduce student fatigue.