Polluting America's Schools

USA Today has published a special report into the effect of industrial pollution on schools and the children who study there. For the report USA Today mapped the locations of nearly 128,000 schools and used an EPA model to track the path of pollution to determine the levels of toxic chemicals outside each school.

Google Maps are used throughout the report to show the location of schools and the location of polluting companies. Users can click on individual schools on the maps to view the national rank of the school in terms of which percentile it resides in for the levels of toxic chemicals found outside the school.

If you click on the school's name in its information window you can view a more detailed breakdown about the individual school's exposure to cancer causing chemicals and to other toxic chemicals. For each school there is also a breakdown listing the chemicals most responsible for the toxicity outside the school and the companies most responsible for the toxic pollution found outside the school.