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EV431
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Final Project
What's the Best Site for a New Colorado College Children's Center?
A "new" children's center is being considered at Colorado College. Though there is land available for construction in some locations along a circular path 3 km from the center of the CC campus, the two currently favored sites include the existing site on Nevada Avenue and the existing physical plant at the Van Briggle building on Uintah Street.
Overall Task: As environmental consultants, you are to prepare a consultant's report understandable to the Children's Center Committee that describes their best site option based solely on air quality considerations. The recommendations should state clearly whether the children's center should be moved to the old Van Briggle building on Uintah Street, kept at the current location on Nevada Avenue or moved to some alternative location. The report will require students to take responsibility for specific sections with each group receiving its own grade.
A scientifically rigorous appendix to the report should justify your recommendations based on all of the following:
Task 1: What Health Effects Should Be Considered
On the course syllabus, we have provided a few web sites that introduce health effects of indoor and outdoor air pollutants. Two EPA web sites that may be useful for considerations of how to site safe schools are also listed below. In small groups, read through the information on some of these sites (and others you may find) so that you understand the major items of concern.
Tools for Schools (EPA)
Healthy Schools (EPA)
The EPA link to indoor air quality has many links with further information. It can be helpful in determining indoor health for our final project, especially the mold link that has more info about a problem the current children's center has.
EPA Air Now
This EPA website that gives an Air Quality Index for that day, in many cities across the nation. the AQI ranges from 0 to 500 and takes into consideration pollutants such as ozone, carbon monoxide and particulates. The categories range from good to hazardous. At the end of each hour, the concentration of each pollutant that the AQI station monitors is converted into a number ranging from zero upwards, using a common scale, or index. The pollutant with the highest number at a given hour becomes the AQI reading. As the air quality changes, the AQI reading increases or decreases. The lower the AQI reading, the cleaner the air.
Health Canada (outdoor air)
(Health Canada: Indoor Air in Schools)
The National Safety Council has information about air pollution, particularly indoors, and relates this to schools. In addition it also has a link addressing the Clean Air Act
The American Lung Association maintains a site dedicated to indoor air pollution concerns. Their "Tip Sheets" cover a range of concerns "from mold to radon."
An excellent site for an overview of pediatric medicine and air-quality-related diseases is the American Lung Association. This site is run by the oldest voluntary health organization in the US and contains detailed pages on asthma and allergies in kids, as well as pages on indoor and outdoor air quality and respiratory health effects.
This NRDC site provides a vast amount of background information on air pollution, and how children are the most vulnerable to these pollutants among us. It is a good mix of politics and science surround the subject of air pollution.
While the child care center we are working with is not located on the site of a dismatled thermometer factory, this article is an interesting case of how legislation has adopted necessary tests for child care facilities' indoor air quality.
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission site has general information as well as lots of dos and don'ts regarding indoor air pollution.
The Air Pollution and Respiratory Health section of the Center for Disease Control and Health website covers indoor and outdoor air quality issues, including sources of air quality problems and their effects on human health.
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, based in California. Click here for another informative link on the same website. These links discuss why children are more prome to health damage from air pollution than adults, and what the concerns are about air pollution from nearby traffic, among other things.
This succinct book called "the health effects of air pollution on children" lists the seven most important air pollutants and explains why children are especially vulnerable to air pollution.
This EPA site presents data on urea-formaldehydes indoors, their sources, effects and exposure levels, etc...
The hacienda rustica site has somegood information about EPA's stance on release, and also on ozone and benzene.
California Indoor Air Quality Program's list of related sites:
A list of many sites and information sheets about numerous topics (mold, Healthy Schools, asbestos, air quality legislation, etc.) involving indoor air quality.
This Consumer Product Safety Comission site has an introductory guide to indoor air quality - why it is important, what are the key components, how is it measured, and what to do about any problems.
An interesting article on the specific problems and effects air pollution creates for children. It also has some interesting information on the different effects on children vs adults.
Children's Learning Environments enewsletter
Recent abstracts from New England Journal of Medicine and from The Lancet on the effects of air pollution on children.
Task 2: Amount of time spent at location
Children at the center spend a considerable amount of time both inside and outside playing. Through interviews with child-care attendants, you should assess the number of hours in each location as a function of season.
California's Children: How and Where They Can Be Exposed to Air Pollution (CARB Technical note) (Full report)
Week 1: kestrels, vacuum filters, met station, NOx box, ion chromatography, XRF
Indoor considerations
Keep in mind that indoor air quality may depend on various factors like the ventilation, number of occupants per indoor volume, outgassing from materials, cooking and geologic considerations.
Outdoor considerations
Keep in mind that all air pollutants emitted by point and non-point sources are transported, dispersed, concentrated and constrained by meteorological and topographical conditions. Atmospheric conditions at a location and at a given time are a function of many variables, including terrain, moisture content of the atmosphere, traffic and meteorological conditions. Understanding the meteorological principles and understanding macro- and micro-scale circulation patterns is important in understanding air pollutant transport and fate.
Project Objectives (by week):
Week 1:
Week 2:
Week 3:
Week 4: