School buses, air pollution & children's health : School buses, air pollution and children's health

Given the introduction of low-emitting diesel school buses over the 2007-2010 period and the age of Ontario’s school bus fleet, it appears that school buses that are already on the road, especially the 1994-2003 model year school buses, will be the dominant source of emissions from Ontario school buses for the next 10 years. [...] The decision about whether to retrofit or replace a 1994-2003 model year school bus would be influenced by the age of the existing bus and the financial situation of the school bus operator. [...] Since 2000, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has run the Lower-Emissions School Bus Program which aims to reduce the exposure of school children to both toxic and smog-forming air pollutants by funding the replacement of old buses with new, low-emitting school buses and retrofitting in-use school buses with technologies that significantly reduce emissions of particulate matter. [...] Exposures On-board School Buses The second report, produced by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Coalition for Clean Air in collaboration with researchers from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, brought attention to the exposure of children on-board school buses. [...] For example, it estimated that DPM from on-road sources was responsible for 53% of the coarse particulate matter (PM10) in the ambient air in Manhattan, New York, in 1993, and for 10 to 15% of the PM2.5 in the ambient air in Phoenix and Denver, Colorado, in 1997 (US EPA, 2002).