Students exposed to toxic bus exhaust fumes

Most Georgia children ride school buses that lack important filters or other devices to keep diesel fumes out of the passenger cabin, according to state data.

Because diesel exhaust contains more than 40 cancer-causing substances and can aggravate asthma and other lung conditions, health officials have worked for several years to reduce children’s exposure aboard buses. Children’s developing lungs make them more susceptible to adverse health effects from tiny exhaust particles.

But many local school districts lack the money to retrofit their bus fleets with emissions control equipment, though they continue to seek funds.

To the dismay of state environmental officials, Georgia’s largest district — the Gwinnett County Public Schools — hasn’t modified buses or applied for any funds.

The district refused multiple requests for interviews, but a spokeswoman said in an e-mail the district’s experts aren’t sure filters are needed, and they also are waiting to examine technology available in 2010, when new engine standards take effect.

In contrast, the Atlanta Public Schools, which received a large grant in 2005, has retrofitted 373 of its buses — the most in the state, according to officials at the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, the state agency heading retrofit efforts statewide. Just 20 of the district’s buses lack diesel particulate filters or diesel oxidation catalysts, school spokesman Joe Manguno said.

Statewide, 1,116 of more than 19,000 school buses have been retrofitted with filters or catalysts designed to greatly reduce soot particles and other pollution, according to state data.

New buses with engines made in 2007 or later come equipped with diesel particulate filters to trap the dangerous exhaust, state officials said. But most of the state’s school buses are much older and have dirtier diesel exhaust that infiltrates the cabins through gaps in the buses and when the doors open at each stop.

“No parent wants to feel like their child’s ride to and from school is contributing to a chronic lung condition,” said Rebecca Watts Hull, program manager for Mothers & Others for Clean Air, an Atlanta-based advocacy group that is part of the division’s statewide coalition to make buses healthier.

A California Environmental Protection Agency study examined the amount of diesel particulates inside school buses and estimated a child’s lifetime cancer risk could be increased by about 4 percent from a daily commute over 13 years. Risks also increased for lower respiratory problems and hospitalizations due to asthma, the study estimated.

Still, experts do not advocate keeping children off school buses — which studies have shown are one of the safest forms of transportation. Instead, Watts Hull said, parents should lobby their school districts and elected officials to seek funds to retrofit buses. They also can push for local “no-idling” policies that require buses be turned off when they aren’t moving.

Many parents are unaware of the risks posed by diesel fumes, environmental and school officials said. “They should be concerned but not alarmed,” said William Cook, the state environmental division’s engines and fuels unit program manager.

Cook’s own children ride school buses in Carroll County that haven’t been retrofitted. “I would feel much better if they were riding on school buses that had emissions controls,” he said. “But I’m not alarmed to the point where I feel the need to pull them off the bus.”

In the past six months, Cook said, schools have expressed more interest in applying for grant money to fix their buses than they have in the past five years.

But Gwinnett’s school district stands out in its resistance to retrofitting, Cook said. The district transports about 120,000 students a day and has about 1,800 buses.

“The other thing that’s alarming is they have begun to refurbish their buses,” Cook said.

When Gwinnett refurbishes older school buses, it repaints them and adds safety features such as roof escape hatches, high-definition mirrors, LED lighting and reflective stripping. But the district is not retrofitting their exhaust systems, Cook said.

“They’re keeping older school buses on the road from four to eight years past their normal lifetime,” Cook said. “We’d like to see Gwinnett, at a minimum on any refurbished bus, install emission control devices.”

Gwinnett school officials, in a written statement, said they don’t believe there is scientific proof the devices improve air in the passenger cabin and that their refurbishment plan, which focuses on structural safety, is the best use of limited funds.

Most want to modify

Most other metro Atlanta school districts want to retrofit their buses, both to improve air in the cabin and outdoors.

The DeKalb County School System retrofitted 33 of its 1,097 buses and is seeking money to do more, said David Guillory, the district’s executive director of transportation.

Last year the district sent two buses — one retrofitted, the other not — to the state Capitol to demonstrate to legislators the importance of providing matching funds to allow schools access to federal money.

This year, various grant programs are being offered that cover 100 percent of the retrofitting costs.

Guillory said DeKalb will be applying.

Clayton County Public Schools has retrofitted 106 buses; Marietta City Schools has done 28, state data show.

The Cobb County School District is preparing an application for federal stimulus funds to retrofit 150 of its 1,144 buses, said district spokesman Jay Dillon. “We are aware that the body of the bus does not totally protect [against] the potential of harmful fumes,” Dillon said last week.

Equipment concerns

Lack of money is the main reason the Cobb district hasn’t retrofitted any buses, Dillon said. The district also had been concerned about problems the Fulton County School System had with retrofit devices on some buses.

In 2007, the Fulton district retrofitted about 74 buses — but later found that the equipment wasn’t compatible with their engines. After Fulton consulted with the manufacturer’s engineers, the devices had to be removed, said Susan Hale, district spokeswoman.

The district’s plan is to buy newer buses with better emissions controls as older buses are retired, Hale said. The district has 738 buses.

Cook said Fulton’s problems likely can be solved with different technology. “We’re hoping that eventually they’ll come back around,” he said.

—————————————

BY THE NUMBERS

19,415: School buses in Georgia

1,116: Buses with retrofits

More than 1 million: Georgia students commuting by school bus

12 - 14: Average years a bus remains in a school fleet

$6,500 - $10,000: Cost to retrofit a bus with a diesel particulate filter

85% to 90%: Reduction in pollution with diesel particulate filter

$1,200 - $5,500: Cost to retrofit a bus with a diesel oxidation catalyst or partial flow-through filter

25% to 50%: Reduction in pollution with catalyst or partial flow-through filter

Sources: Georgia Environmental Protection Division, Georgia Department of Education, AJC research

——————————————

ON THE WEB:

• Georgia Retrofit Program

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Clean School Bus USA program

• California Environmental Protection Agency, Children’s School Bus Exposure Study

———————————————-

Air in older buses is dirtier; a health risk

Students who ride older school buses that haven’t been retrofitted with emissions controls are being exposed to diesel particulates and gases.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says tiny diesel particles pose a significant health risk because they lodge in the lungs. Children, because their lungs are still developing, and all people with asthma, other respiratory problems, heart and lung disease are at greatest risk.

The EPA has determined that regularly breathing diesel exhaust is a likely lung cancer hazard and that it also can damage lungs in other ways.

“Parents need to be aware that the bus exhaust can cause some problems, or make their child’s asthma worse,” said Randy Baker, chairman of the respiratory therapy program at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, where researchers are studying school bus idling and diesel particulates.

Parents should watch for any indication that a child with asthma experiences breathing problems after getting off a school bus or while riding one. If they do, Baker said, parents can work with the school nurse to make sure the child uses an inhaler before going on the bus.

Various studies have documented increased levels of diesel particulates inside older school buses. A 2003 California Environmental Protection Agency study found vehicle pollution inside school buses was worse than roadway air because the buses were leaking fumes back into their cabins. Besides installing filters, the agency recommended that bus drivers avoid directly following other diesel vehicles and minimize traveling in caravans.

A University of Washington study published in October confirmed that in-cabin air pollution aboard diesel school buses is worse than the outside air. A 2007 review of school bus studies by Yale researchers concluded: “Although definitive data are still lacking, these studies suggest that currently available control technologies can nearly eliminate particulate self-pollution inside diesel school buses.”

Many Atlanta-area school districts have no-idling policies to reduce concentrations of diesel exhaust when buses are loading and unloading — and they encourage parents to report idling buses. They also use ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel and perform regular maintenance on exhaust systems to ensure they are operating as efficiently as possible even if they aren’t retrofitted.