Wichita ? EPA officials will be testing the air quality at a southeast Wichita school after a rise in chromium levels at industrial plants nearby.

Environmental officials for the Wichita school district said the Environmental Protection Agency will be monitoring the air around Colvin Elementary for the next 60 days. It will include a check of levels of hexavalent chromium, which can irritate lungs and increase the risk of developing lung cancer.

Hexavalent chromium is used in such manufacturing jobs as welding and spray painting. Boeing and Spirit Aerospace — located in the same ZIP code as the school — are the industries reporting chromium releases.

School district officials acknowledged the harm that the tested chemicals could potentially pose, but said there’s no cause for alarm.

“There would be some people who might be alarmed and this does appear scary,” said Tim Phares, environmental services director for the Wichita school district. “On the other hand, we really don’t know what’s in the air until the testing is done.”

Chromium 6 is the same chemical that made news in the 1980s after environmental consultant Erin Brockovich found it caused health problems for residents of Hinkley, Calif. Brockovich, who grew up in Lawrence, told The Wichita Eagle in an e-mail interview that she was “delighted to see the EPA even beginning to take some action and initiative to look into the situation closer.”