© 2024 MICHIGAN PUBLIC
91.7 Ann Arbor/Detroit 104.1 Grand Rapids 91.3 Port Huron 89.7 Lansing 91.1 Flint
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Many Michigan school children in chemical facility vulnerability zones

Center for Effective Government

They are supposed to be a safe places to learn, but a new report finds that hundreds of thousands of Michigan children attend schools inside what chemical companies call a vulnerability zone.

Sean Moulton, director of open government policy with the Center for Effective Government, says the level of risk associated with a particular chemical facility has to do with the quantity of chemicals being handled, how dangerous those chemicals are and the proximity of the facility to population centers.

"They estimate how far a major accident could reach outside of their facility," he explains. "And then, that becomes the radius of a circular zone around the facility, and everyone inside that zone is potentially at risk."

According to the report, 382,000 Michigan children, or 23 percent of students in the state, attend school within one of these vulnerability zones.

The report recommends greater oversight of these facilities, including a requirement they switch to safer alternatives whenever feasible.

Moulton's group conducted a similar study earlier this year, drawing a one-mile buffer around each facility that found low-income children were most at risk.

However, he says the new methodology paints a broader picture.

"Many of these vulnerability zones are much larger than a mile," he points out. "Some of them are 20, 25 miles large.

"These zones are so big that they really do cover all types of communities."

Moulton encourages parents and community members to be aware of any nearby facilities, and to make sure schools within vulnerability zones have emergency plans in place in the event of a disaster.

"We have to insist that they use the safest feasible technologies and chemicals, that they store the smallest amounts of chemicals as possible, especially when they're in these high-population areas," he stresses. "And then, they can go directly to the facility and ask them why they're not being safer."

The full report, Kids in Danger Zones, and an interactive map of high-risk chemical facilities, is on the Center for Effective Government website.