Jamie Hopkins
Editor and Senior Reporter
Editor and Senior Reporter
Across the country, in big cities and small towns, kids attend schools so close to busy roads that traffic exhaust poses a health risk.
In Burlington, New Jersey, hundreds of students walk across a road the nonprofit Tri-State Transportation Campaign calls the most treacherous for pedestrians in all of New Jersey. The dangers are real.
Why nearness is a problem, what schools can do and how parents have led the way.
Hopkins reported this story with the support of the Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism and the National Fellowship, programs of the University of Southern California Center for Health Journalism.
Other stories in the series include:
America’s super polluters
The invisible hazard afflicting th
"There exists a class of hyper-polluters — the worst-of-the-worst — that disproportionately expose communities of color and low income populations to chemical releases," researchers write in a 2016 paper.
Air pollution is a real health risk for people in communities across the U.S., as extensive research shows. But while we all have to breathe, not everyone breathes the same air, thanks to big variations from place to place.