# Literature Review
`PBPL280 Project (Spring 2021)`

1. [**Environmental Toxicity and Poor Cognitive Outcomes in Children and Adults**](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4247328/)
* Objective "Reviews negative effects of environmental toxins (such as air pollutants and organic chemical pollutants) in adults and children."
* Issue: Studies on the Impacts of environmental toxins/compound/ exposure may vary in infant, children, teens, and adults
* Main Findings: "Lead exposure shows, blood levels higher (than the CDC’s previous threshold of 10 μg/dL) are much more common among minority children, children in low-income families, and children living in older homes (Bellinger, 2008). In a study of more than 150,000 public schoolchildren in Orange County, Florida, found that Hispanic and African-American children had greater exposure to air pollution than Caucasian children, and African-American children had greater exposure than Hispanic children (Chakraborty & Zandbergen, 2007)."
* Other findings: In a study of school children in China, researchers found a significant association between air pollution, particularly levels of NO2, and poorer results on neurobehavioral tests designed to measure the children’s sensory, motor, and psychomotor functions (Wang et al., 2009).
* Collection of studies regarding the issue.

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2. [**School-based exposure to hazardous air pollutants and grade point average: A multi-level study**](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935116300469?casa_token=hfmLbVcz5G0AAAAA:GzirCflxeHZaXyvZ3QhPKLblWJt6uFkCg7ZEBeKHrIsjSDfCrxL3wvLydDAfSxXeM_yriWGWxaM)

* To find out if school-level exposures impact individual children's academic performance and to find what is the effect of outdoor HAPs surrounding school sites on attending student's GPA, accounting for individal-level covariates and school-level demographics
* Environmental injustice occurs as children from low income and minority students are exposed to environmental hazards in proximity to their schools. Has negative academic impacts in children.
* "Schools with respiratory risk values at or above the mean of 2.0 (n=23)have higher % of Hispanics students (95% vs. 75%, p < 0.05) and Students qualifying for free and reduced price meals (88% vs. 65%, p < 0.05) than do the schools with respiratory risk values below the mean (n =35)"
* Location El Paso Texas
* Observations: 1888 Parents responded to survey (30% respondent rate)
* Having a mother with higher levels of education and with greater English proficiency were positive and significant influences on GPA.

3. [**How does air quality affect the willingness of graduate students to stay? Evidence from Beijing city, China**](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620308064?casa_token=4vpCEs4gx84AAAAA:1HlR6NkQv0shFWPxbfsxktYSZnqcwjLtErBr1BfjDhazmtGbAoGZDwVLjX6NDEvDXFvYVhf6Fw)
* Objective: Previous literature mainly focuses on the impact of air pollution on human health and society. However, it is rare to specially study the effect of urban air pollution on the willingness of local college students to stay in Beijing after graduation.
* Issue: This study focuses on the impact of air quality on the willingness of college graduate students to stay in Beijing and continue with transformation and upgrading of the city. To keep talent in China.
* Main Findings: The confounding variable of "Public Resources" have the most significant impact on the willingness to stay in Beijing. (This study focuses on the impact of air quality on the willingness of college graduate students to stay in Beijing). As opposed to "cost of living" it has a negative relationship on the willingness to stay in Beijing as it becomes pricey to stay in the city thus damaging the long-term development of Beijing's economy.
* Notes: The second article was more interesting as it compared postgraduate students and seeing if they moved away from a heavily polluted area (China) or stayed. The article mentions that this is an important factor to consider as China's development has grown over the past decade and the dramatic development of the city is due to a great extent of the various kinds of talent graduate students bring. I bring this article up because it was interesting how they gauged air quality and an outcome they wanted to measure. Maybe we could measure education outcomes in part with this view where educational talent is not leaving and staying in a particular area and adding to the growth where they stay. (talent stays within a region). Even if the study took place in China, I'm sure we can find similar patterns in the IE that could shape how we take up our proposal.

4. [**Something in the air? Air quality and children’s educational outcomes**](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775716303703?casa_token=ugeiFu02DpMAAAAA:P15cDtFA3bgdeg3-2FniGlhUfUHSGnX3HdTJL8XVao134fFflk_wIx5mOBFca2HT66XmEQb9lg)
* Objective: The paper contributed to an emerging literature on the relationship between ambient air quality and the development/academic achievement of children.
* Issue: Understanding the full effect of air quality is vital in knowing the full cost of human made air pollution that might not be taken into consideration and also estimating the benefits and implications of policies to limit the threat of negative air qualities.
* Main Findings: Lifetime exposure to pollen has significant negative effects on reading and math ability at the start of kindergarden. For children reporting a history of asthma, the relationship is large between negative air quality and math and reading achievement. One recommendation is that: low-income areas are often relatively old, and less likely to be equipped with air conditioning. And, poor students are less likely to receive diagnosis and treatment for health problems.
* Notes: The first article was more cut and dry where the article measures air quality/air pollen and seeing educational outcomes. What they find is that air quality has some effect on educational test scores (math/reading) but not a very strong relationship.

5. [**Air Pollution Around Schools Is Linked To Poorer Student Health And Academic Performance**](https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0077)

* Objective: To assess the effects of industrial air pollution on children health and academic performance in Michigan; researched exposure of 3,660 public K-12 schools and academic outcomes
* Studies the correlation between industrial air pollutant exposure, school attendance and state exam performance
* Findings: 62.5% of public K-12 schools were located in regions of high industrial air pollution, with 81.5% of Black school children and 62.1 Hispanic school children being in the most polluted zones (compared to 44.4% of white school children). Among schools with high pollution exposure, there were higher rates of below-average state testing results as well as higher absence rates.

6. [**The consequences of exposure to developmental, neurological, and respiratory toxins for school performance: a closer look at environmental ascription in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana**](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11111-013-0185-9)

* Objective: Assesses environmental indicators of toxicants that impact respiratory function, neurological function and human development in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana among 90 public K-12 schools
* Understanding the statistical significance between environmental toxicant exposure and school performance, outside of SES factors that are correlated with pollutant exposure
* Findings: Pollutants that are suspected or known toxicants had an effect on school performance; these effects are not just a result of SES variables. Therefore, the relationship between school performance and toxicant exposure is statistically significant.

7. [**Breathless: Schools, Air Toxics, and Environmental Justice in California** ](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1541-0072.2006.00176.x?casa_token=URPdr__fcGsAAAAA:My2MPVf7fta8C1JxqrMKEcZM_Jro7eLYrVOQxZJ0F4O9GBQc64JKNGo8DPmUDkz0kVLXpoS3YSC66eF)
* Objective: The main objective of this paper was to study environmental justice, ambient air quality and schooling performance in California.
* Data: The study used data at census tract level.
* Different data sources (EPA, National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA),(NTI)) to derive a respiratory hazard index value, the index value is associated with outdoor air toxics exposure ( calculation for the index is done by divided each pollutant concentration estimate by its corresponding reference concentration).
* For schooling performance the study mapped public school included in both the California Basic Educational Data System (CBEDS) and Academic Performance Index (API) for the year 2000.A limited set of school-level variables, including student demography, a proxy for poverty, a measure of teacher quality, and other factors were also included in the analysis as potential confounding variables.
* Additionally, the study also examined the association between the respiratory hazard data and asthma hospitalizations for the period 1998 to 2000.

* Findings- The correlation between our respiratory hazard ratio and the reported rates of hospitalization for asthma was positive and highly significant even after controlling fo socio-economic factors such as population density, poverty rates, housing value, and race. "The broad point here is that the air toxic-based estimates correlate well with one measure of actual respiratory outcomes that has been shown to have some impact on school performance".
* There are six counties (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Clara, Alameda, and San Mateo) where the hazard ratio exceeds this benchmark. These counties also contain nearly 95 percent of the schools in the state where the tract-level respiratory hazard ratio exceeds 10. In these areas, the student population is 27.1 percent white and 49.9 percent poor; for the schools in the counties with respiratory risks that fall below the threshold, the student population is 46.8 percent white and 43.3 percent poor

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Work Cited Page:

* Hao, Y., Hao, X., Li, Y., Zhang, Y., &amp; Wu, H. (2020, March 04). How does air QUALITY affect the willingness of graduate students to stay? Evidence from Beijing city, China. Retrieved May 08, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620308064

* Jianghong Liu, PhD and Gary Lewis, *Environmental Toxicity and Poor Cognitive Outcomes in Children and Adults*, J Environ Health. 2014 Jan-Feb; 76(6): 130–138., https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4247328/

* Marcotte, D. (2016, December 14). Something in the air? Air quality and children's educational outcomes. Retrieved May 08, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775716303703

* Mohai, P., Kweon, B. S., Lee, S., & Ard, K. (2011). Air pollution around schools is linked to poorer student health and academic performance. Health affairs (Project Hope), 30(5), 852–862. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2011.0077

* Sara E. Grineski, Stephanie E.Clark-Reyna, Timothy W.Collins,*School-based exposure to hazardous air pollutants and grade point average: A multi-level study*,"Environmental Research Volume 147, May 2016, Pages 164-171, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935116300469?casa_token=hfmLbVcz5G0AAAAA:GzirCflxeHZaXyvZ3QhPKLblWJt6uFkCg7ZEBeKHrIsjSDfCrxL3wvLydDAfSxXeM_yriWGWxaM

* Scharber, H., Lucier, C., London, B. et al. The consequences of exposure to developmental, neurological, and respiratory toxins for school performance: a closer look at environmental ascription in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Popul Environ 35, 205–224 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-013-0185-9

* Pastor Jr, M., Morello‐Frosch, R., & Sadd, J. L. (2006). Breathless: schools, air toxics, and environmental justice in California. Policy Studies Journal, 34(3), 337-362.