Some of their fellow riders backed away, seeming to fear the students were suffering from a dread disease. In fact, the students were participating in research to find out what contaminants they encountered in the air on their daily rides to school. The 2-week portable monitoring phase of the study ended in July, but the students continued working with professional scientists to analyze the samples they collected.
Students test for lead in soil collected from a Baltimore public city garden.
Demonstrating use of spectrometer is University of Maryland toxicologist Linda Watson, who was students' mentor. A fringe benefit was that the group was the subject of a Baltimore Sun newspaper feature article and photos. Two major sources of pollution, especially on the street, are the city's fleet of diesel sanitation trucks and city buses. With transfers, it is not unusual for a student who commutes to spend 2 hours or more each day traveling to and from school or work.