The image in the photo of diesel exhaust pouring out of the back of the big yellow school bus makes me want to
cough and I am no where near the back of the bus. Imagine the children sitting inside the bus, where much of that bus
diesel's own exhaust is entering back inside the cabin from cracks in the exhaust train and through windows and doors.
Two environmental groups imagined it -- and based on disturbing studies of the effects on school children from the 40
different chemicals classified as toxic contaminants that make up diesel exhaust -- have filed a lawsuit in California
to force Laidlaw Transit Inc., of Naperville, Illinois, to put written warnings on buses about the dangers of
cancer-causing pollutants the buses emit. Air pollution from diesel exhaust is a known carcinogen. The State of
California knows it. The EPA knows it.According to Our Children's Earth Foundation, due to a child's developing body and lungs, faster metabolism and faster breathing rate than adults, children are most susceptible to the cancer risks associated with diesel exhaust. Nationally, the average school bus is nine years old and emits nearly two times more pollution per mile than a big rig truck. Buses built before 1991 are allowed to release at least six times more toxic soot and three times more smog forming nitrogen oxides than newer models. Children riding on diesel fueled school buses inhale roughly one million more school bus exhaust than non-riders in the population.
"Our children are being exposed to harmful, cancer-causing toxins every day when they innocently step on the bus to ride to school," said Tiffany Schauer, Executive Director of Our Children's Earth. "Our children should not have to wear protective gear to get to school." So if they succeed in getting the warnings about the dangers of cancer-causing pollutants the buses emit clearly stated on school buses, what difference does that mean for our nation's children? Shouldn't they be required to eliminate the problem and make getting to school safe? Visit Our Children's Earth Foundation for extensive information regarding this issue.
Photo credit: Coalition for Clean Air
