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What Parents Need to Know About Diesel School Buses.. |

The bus. And diesel exhaust is bad for your child: It contains carcinogens, as well as tiny particles that can cause or worsen breathing problems.

2. How much diesel exhaust gets into school buses?

To help answer this question, researchers from NRDC, the Coalition for Clean Air and the University of California at Berkeley measured air quality inside typical school buses as they traveled along real elementary-school bus routes in the Los Angeles area.They made continuous measurements inside the bus, and compared the air quality both outside the bus and car passengers ahead of the buses tested. They took readings at idle with the engine running while traveling through the hills or drive slowly, while making frequent stops. And most of the buses tested did not emit a significant amount of black smoke visible. In other words, the tests re-created real conditions.

The results are alarming. Our study found that levels of diesel exhaust inside a school bus can be four times higher than those found in passenger cars driving just ahead of the bus. And the diesel levels inside the buses were more than eight times the average diesel-exhaust content of California air.

3. What are the health effects of diesel exhaust inside school buses?

Diesel exhaust has serious health effects that have been extensively documented. For instance, numerous studies have shown that diesel fumes cause cancer, particularly lung cancer. In fact, government regulators estimate, based on lifetime risks, that diesel exhaust is responsible for 125,000 cancers nationwide.

Since children often ride buses to school every day for many years, their exposure adds up — which translates into an unacceptably high risk of getting cancer later in life. Out of every million children that ride a school bus an hour or two each day during the school year, 23 to 46 of them may eventually develop cancer from the excess diesel exhaust they inhale on their way to and from school.

Other health effects are also troubling, though harder to quantify. The particles in diesel exhaust impair the lungs and aggravate diseases like emphysema and bronchitis; they can also worsen — or trigger — asthma attacks. What’s more, children are more susceptible than adults to these effects — they breathe faster and their lungs are less able to defend themselves from pollutants. In addition, exposures early in life can return to haunt them as they age, in the form of chronic health problems.

The American school board journal

School code of the State of California

Bus and Recreational Vehicle Accident Reconstruction and Litigation

Research bulletin

The Wheels on the Bus