School Air Pollution and Executive Functioning Development Among Low-Income Kindergarteners

• In Event: Effects of Childhood Pollution Exposure on Development and Achievement

Abstract

In addition to the indirect risks that emissions pose to children and families via climate change, such emissions also pose direct risks to children’s well-being through the deleterious effects of air pollution on the developing brain. Growing evidence suggests that exposure to air pollution during childhood is associated with worse executive functioning (EF) outcomes, the cognitive capacities that are foundational for goal-directed behavior throughout the life course. Most studies have focused on residential exposures and traffic-related pollution, but little is known about the role of school-based exposures to pollution from industrial sources. The current study examines associations between toxic industrial air pollution around elementary schools and children’s EF skill development among a racially and ethnically diverse sample of kindergarteners from low-income families in Tulsa, Oklahoma (N = 765). Data on school-level ambient industrial pollution were drawn from the University of Massachusetts Amherst Political Economy Research Institute Air Toxics at School Project, which geo-matched EPA-derived industrial air pollution concentrations to U.S. public schools. Two dimensions of children’s EF— inhibitory control/attention and cognitive flexibility— were assessed three times between the fall of kindergarten and the fall of first grade using tasks from the NIH Toolbox. Longitudinal mixed models predicted children’s EF skill development from their schools’ national percentile of toxicity-weighted air pollution. Results suggest that although there were no differences by school pollution in children’s EF skills at the start of kindergarten—suggesting that the role of school pollution in children’s EF development is distinct from the role of residential pollution— higher levels of industrial pollution around schools were associated with slower growth in children’s inhibitory control/attention across the subsequent year, even after adjusting for a rich set of child and school covariates. Specifically, children attending the most polluted school in the sample demonstrated half as much growth in their inhibitory control/attention than those at the least polluted school in the sample— a larger effect size than prior studies of traffic-related pollution. There were no differences by school pollution in children’s rate of growth in cognitive flexibility. These findings suggest that actions are needed to reduce industrial pollution around and improve air quality within U.S. schools, such as stricter regulation of industrial emissions and investments in school infrastructure improvements to increase indoor air quality.

 

Author

• Anna Wright, Georgetown University
  Presenting Author