Aircraft emissions from Los Angeles International Airport will receive greater scrutiny if a $2.15 million study is approved Monday by the Board of Airport Commissioners.

The airport commission will decide whether to approve a three-year contract with Jacobs Consultancy to examine how diesel emissions and noise at LAX affect communities surrounding the airport.

Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that operates LAX, agreed to conduct the study two years ago as part of a settlement reached with the county, three cities and a community group to scrap former Mayor James Hahn's $11 billion airport modernization plan.

Members of the LAX Coalition for Economic Environmental and Education Justice, a consortium of 23 environmental, labor and educational groups, have lobbied for a study since 2004, said Flor Barajas Tena, a coalition representative.

"Low-income communities surrounding the airport want to learn more about the pollution that affects their lives, and we're going to figure out how much of that comes from the airport," Barajas Tena said. "Hopefully it will be a first step in developing a real policy in controlling the airport's emission levels."

If approved, the air quality study would begin in June, allowing researchers to gather information compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration, the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, according to an airport report.

"The air quality study will be the most comprehensive air monitoring, modeling and data analysis program to be undertaken by LAWA for one of its facilities or, for that fact, by any airport authority nationwide," the report stated.

Environmentalists say noise and diesel emissions from aircraft negatively impact schools and homes that lie beneath the airport's flight path.

One example is Felton Elementary School in the Lennox School District , where children sit in windowless classrooms to shut out airline noise and pollution, said Laurie Kaye, a policy analyst for the nonprofit Environmental Defense, based in New York .

"This unprecedented study will provide vitally important data to protect children who live, play and attend school near LAX," Kaye said.