>I'm not in NJ but looking at recent studies it seems like the state has among the worst water and air quality consistently. > >is anything particular about that area where the high school is?

New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the country. It would kind of go hand in hand that the air quality isn't the best. Obviously it's not as bad as Los Angeles, but California is a big enough to balance it out when it comes to these studies.

As for the school, they don't really know, that's kind of what the testing is also all about. There are a lot of super fund sites in New Jersey and I believe this is near one of them. Toms river was also a big cancer cluster (at least in the 80s and 90s) as well as a few other towns.