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Harmful Emissions Bus-Ted

Riding the bus to school shouldn’t be hazardous to your children’s health – or to anyone else who gets behind one of these diesel-fume belching vehicles.

That’s why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been awarding grants to school divisions around the country to replace or retrofit diesel buses with equipment that helps them burn cleaner fuels. This year, Congress appropriated $7 million for EPA’s Clean School Bus program, and kids across America are breathing a little easier as a result.

Every day, roughly 24 million children in America ride the bus to school, spending an average of 90 minutes apiece in transit. Breathing the fumes from diesel buses is believed to be one of the leading causes of childhood asthma. Children are exposed to the fumes as they get on and off the bus (if the driver keeps the motor idling), as they ride with the windows open during traffic, and when sitting in an idling bus.

EPA grants have helped clear the air of bus fumes in school districts all across the country, including parts of Illinois, Virginia, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and New Jersey. The grants pay for technology, such as catalytic converters and particulate matter filters, that can reduce harmful pollutants by as much as 90 percent. Some localities are also enforcing new rules that stop bus drivers from leaving the engine running when the bus isn’t moving.

The changes are good for American children – and anyone else who breathes the air around our nation’s school buses.

To learn more about EPA grants to reduce school bus emissions, click here.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org