This Is the American School With the Most Toxic Air

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jun 4, 4:00PM EDT

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America’s air pollution problems were particularly grim in the 1970s. The smog in Los Angeles was so thick that it looked like modern-day Beijing. On some days, drivers were discouraged from commuting. School children were not allowed to go out for recess. A number of regulations cut the problem so substantially that Los Angeles does not face severe smog days at all.

Air pollution around America, however, has not been eliminated by any means. To combat a lingering problem in some areas, the Department of Education’s $122-billion Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief Fund set aside monies to improve air quality in schools in the 2021-2020 academic year. Upgrading ventilation, installing carbon monoxide monitors, and bringing in fresh air as much as possible were some of the measures schools could use the funds for to clear the air.

Yet several schools across the nation continued to register poor air quality not just because of a contagious virus, but due to airborne toxins as well.

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To identify the American school with the highest concentrations of toxic air hazards, 24/7 Tempo reviewed the average toxic air hazard data in the report, “The 50 Schools in America With the Most Toxic Air,” by playground supplier AAA State of Play.

The report used PERI Toxic Hazard Scores, calculated by the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The analysis includes only currently operational regular public schools for pre-K-12 and does not cover charter, alternative, private, or adult education institutions. The scores are based on the concentration of air toxins in each 810-by-810-meter (2,657-by-2,657-foot) grid cell within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of each facility, scaled to take into account the toxicity weight of each chemical. According to the report, all of the chemicals are hazardous, but their toxicities vary greatly. (Population data came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 American Community Survey.)

According to the report, the average toxic hazard score reached 4,512 nationwide. But some schools went above that mark – and by a wide margin.

The school with the most toxic air is Cromwell Elementary School. Here are the details:

> Location: Memphis, TN
> Population: 650,910
> School’s toxic air hazard: 1,637,292
> School’s biggest toxic hazard: Chromium

Click here to read the 50 schools with the most toxic air

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.