An article in Monday's issue of USA Today, a national newspaper, lists West Greene High School and Mosheim School as being among the worst in the country in terms of being located near chemically toxic pollution in the air.

The article, called "The Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America's Schools," ranks WGHS and Mosheim School, which combined elementary and middle-school grades, in the 1st percentile nationally in terms of the schools' being located in the vicinity of polluted air.

Greeneville city schools are listed nearly as high in terms of their proximity to chemically polluted air.

The article did not state or imply that the air in any local school had itself been tested for pollution. No tests of that kind were involved in the research for the article.

The story was simply based on how near the various schools are located to sources of chemical air pollution.

The newspaper article states that 96 percent of the "overall toxicity" near Mosheim School is due to a type of toxic chemical called diisocyanates.

According to Wikipedia, anInternet information site, diisocyanates, also called isocyanates, are a toxic chemical used in the manufacturing of polyurethanes. Exposure to diisocyanates may cause asthma, according to Wikipedia.

The "polluters" in the article listed as "most responsible for toxics outside this school" are DTR Tennessee on Pottertown Road outside Mosheim, Eastman Chemical Co. in Kingsport, Donaldson Co. in Greeneville, the U.S. Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Kingsport, and the John Sevier Fossil Plant operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority near Rogersville.

However, a major error by DTR of Tennessee in a 2005 report from the company to the U.S. Environmental Agency calls into question the validity of the information used in the USA Today article about local schools.

In 2005, a company spokesman said today, DTR of Tennessee grossly overestimated in a report to EPA the company's potential for emission of isocyanates at its facility near Mosheim. The overestimate was the result of an error by the company which was later discovered and reported to the EPA, the spokesman said.

In addition to that potential flaw in the data used by USA Today, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC) in Nashville said this morning in a telephone interview that the USA Today article used computer model data from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site as the source for its article.

The TDEC spokesman, Meg Lockhart, said the data on the EPA Web site are "intended to be used as a screening tool, not a risk assessment tool." But, she said, "unfortunately they (USA Today) did go past that," and used the computer model data as a risk assessment tool.

She said the EPA computer model "is a first step in a multi-step process."

Cal Doty, human resources manager for DTR Tennessee, said in a telephone interview this morning, "We do use isocyanates" in the manufacturing of rubber products for the automotive industry.

Doty noted that the data in the USA Today article was from 2005. He said that, in 2005, DTR made an error in reporting its potential for emitting isocyanates, and "grossly over-reported" its potential for a problem.

He said DTR corrected the reporting error in 2008, pointing out that its potential for emitting isocyanates was less than 1 percent of the amount it reported. The company has a letter from the EPA acknowleging the correction, he said.

He also pointed out that the information DTR provided to the EPA was its "potential to emit pollutants, rather than actual air quality around the schools."

Doty also stated that, since 2005, DTR has spent $3.5 million to further reduce its emissions. "We've tried to do everything we can," Doty said, to operate within state and federal environmental permit requirements.

"We do have a commitment to our associates and the community to be a good citizen,"the DTR official said.

Doty pointed out, as TDEC spokesperson Lockhart had done, that the EPA data were from a screening tool, "and shouldn't be used for risk assessment."

He said said no one from USA Today "ever contacted us" and asked for information. He thanked The Greeneville Sun for doing so.

USA Today cites the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Political Economy Research Institute as a source, as well as EPA.

There were 2,150 schools ranked in Tennessee and 28 schools in Greeneville and Greene County.

Here are the national percentile rankings of the local schools, according to the USA Today story. The material inside the quotation marks is also quoted directly from the USA Today article:

* West Greene High School, 275 West Greene Drive, Mosheim -- 1st percentile ("The air is worse at four schools across the nation.");

* Mosheim Elementary School, 297 West School St., Mosheim -- 1st percentile ("The air is worse at 373 schools across the nation.");

* EastView Elementary School, 454 E. Bernard Ave., Greeneville -- 2nd percentile ("The air is worse at 1,603 schools across the nation.");

* Tusculum View Elementary School, 1725 Lafayette St., Greeneville -- 2nd percentile ("The air is worse at 1,773 schools across the nation.)";

* McDonald Elementary School, 8120 McDonald Road, Mohawk -- 3rd percentile ("The air is worse at 2,830 schools across the nation.");

* Greeneville High School, 210 Tusculum Blvd., Greeneville -- 4th percentile ("The air is worse at 3,596 schools across the nation.");

* Beacon School (main campus of Holston United Methodist Home) -- 4th percentile ("The air is worse at 3,796 schools across the nation.");

* Highland Elementary School, 208 N. Highland Ave.., Greeneville -- 4th percentile ("The air is worse at 4,521 schools across the nation.");

* Ottway Elementary School, 2705 Ottway Road, Greeneville -- 5th percentile ("The air is worse at 4,810 schools across the nation.");

* Greeneville/Greene County Center for Technology, 1121 Hal Henard Road -- 5th percentile ("The air is worse at 4,852 schools across the nation.");

* Hal Henard Elementary School, 425 E. Vann Road, Greeneville -- 5th percentile ("The air is worse at 5,419 schools across the nation.");

* Greeneville Middle School, 433 E. Vann Road, Greeneville -- 5th percentile ("The air is worse at 5,419 schools across the nation.");

* Greeneville Adventist Academy, 305 Takoma Ave., Greeneville -- 5th percentile ("The air is worse at 5,419 schools across the nation.");

* West Pines Elementary School, 3500 West Pines Road, Greeneville -- 6th percentile ("The air is worse at 5,963 schools across the nation.");

* Glenwood Elementary School, 3860 Warrensburg Road, Greeneville -- 6th percentile ("The air is worse at 5,970 schools across the nation.");

* North Greene High School, 4675 Old Baileyton Road, Greeneville -- 6th percentile ("The air is worse at 6,070 schools across the nation.");

* Baileyton Elementary School, 6535 Horton Hwy., Greeneville -- 6th percentile ("The air is worse at 6,311 schools across the nation.");

* Towering Oaks Christian School, 1985 Buckingham Road, Greeneville -- 6th percentile ("The air is worse at 6,445 schools across the nation.");

* Chuckey-Doak Middle School, 120 Chuckey-Doak Road, Afton -- 6th percentile ("The air is worse at 6,581 schools across the nation.");

* Doak Elementary School, 70 W. Tusculum Station St., Greeneville -- 6th percentile ("The air is worse at 6,837 schools across the nation.");

* DeBusk Elementary School, 740 Debusk Road, Greeneville -- 8th percentile ("The air is worse at 8,604 schools across the nation.");

* Chuckey-Doak High School, 365 Ripley Island Rd., Afton -- 9th percentile ("The air is worse at 10,558 schools across the nation.");"

* Chuckey Elementary School, 1605 Chuckey Hwy., Chuckey -- 10th percentile ("The air is worse at 11,384 schools across the nation.");

* Nolachuckey Elementary School, 565 Nolichuckey Road, Greeneville -- 21st percentile ("The air is worse at 26,000 schools across the nation.");

* Greene County Christian School, 9802 107 Cutoff, Greeneville -- 21st percentile ("The air is worse at 26,377 schools across the nation.");

* South Greene High School, 7469 Asheville Hwy., Greeneville -- 23rd percentile ("The air is worse at 28,196 schools across the nation.");

* Camp Creek Elementary School, 2941 Camp Creek Road, Greeneville -- 24th percentile ("The air is worse at 30,011 schools across the nation.");

* Path Academy, 90 Stanley Lane (main campus of Free Will Baptist Family Ministries in Camp Creek) -- 25th percentile ("The air is worse at 30,755 schools across the nation.");

A followup article will appear in Wednesday's issue of The Greeneville Sun.