Lead Monitoring in the Pilsen Neighborhood
In January 2010, the Illinois EPA placed a monitor on the roof of Manuel
Perez Jr. Elementary School to sample ambient air concentrations of lead in the
area. Air samples at the Perez monitor were collected once every six days and
typically showed lead levels well under the new, more protective National
Ambient Air Quality Standard. However, periodically there were elevated lead
readings at the monitor (elevated in 11 of the approximately 60 samples taken
in 2010).
The National Ambient Air Quality Standard is based on an average of three
months of readings. Although most of the readings in 2010 were well below the
standard, four elevated samples between November 2010 and January 2011 caused
the three-month average to be greater than the National Ambient Air Quality
Standard.
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