Breathe easier

Here's some good news about air quality around public schools: the EPA is on it.

Children are particularly susceptible to toxic chemicals; they breathe more air in proportion to their weight than do adults, and their bodies are still developing. Exposure to some chemicals can trigger ailments such as asthma or lead to cancer years or even decades later.

The newspaper's investigation, published in December, used a government computer simulationOhio EPA found levels of carcinogens 50 times what the state considered acceptable. USA TODAY subsequently teamed with Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland to take "snapshot" air samples near 95 schools in 30 states. At 64 of those locations, the newspaper found elevated levels of chemicals. that showed at least 435 schools where the air outside appeared to be more toxic than the air at an Ohio elementary school closed in 2005. There, the