Pending Legislation Can Prevent Serious Health Risk For Children

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Betin Santos, Environmental Defense, 713-942-5821

               Jennifer Dickson, 512-691-3442

(Austin - May 3, 2007)  More than 1 million Texas children stand to benefit from bills pending in the state legislature that would retrofit diesel school buses to remove harmful emissions from inside the bus. Soon the House of Representatives could vote on SB 529 to enhance the Clean School Bus program that was created during the 79^th session, but left unfunded. A House and Senate Conference Committee must also set aside necessary funding for the next biennium.

“Funding the Clean School Bus program will allow children throughout Texas to benefit from the clean air fees paid by their families,” said Betin Santos, manager of the Clean Air for Life campaign of Environmental Defense. “Cleaning up the state’s school buses offers the best bang for the state’s air quality improvement buck. It’s up to our elected officials to choose to protect children’s health, or leave them to breathe dirty air.”

Children riding school buses are exposed to high concentrations of fine particulates and other toxic substances from the buses’ own emissions that enter the cabin.  In addition, school district’s without a “no idling” policy subject teachers and staff whom spend time on “bus duty” to high levels of diesel pollution. While school buses are the safest way to transport children, the emissions from their diesel engines contribute to a host of health effects including increased asthma, heart disease, and increased cancer risk. 

Environmental Defense and the Conroe Independent School District partnered last year to conduct a demonstration project to evaluate just how much diesel pollution enters the school bus during an  average trip.  Conroe ISD is the first in Texas to conduct such a project. 

“The District felt it was important to accurately test the levels of diesel emissions both inside and outside of our buses.  It is also important to recognize that these emissions are present in buses throughout Texas which is why there needs to be statewide funding to make Texas school buses safer for our students,” said Sam Davila, Director of Transportation for CISD. “Using a $750,000 grant we obtained, our District was able to retrofit 112 buses. Cleaning up this many buses would not have been possible without external funding.  We found that by outfitting buses with diesel particulate filters and reducing the amount of time buses idle we can reduce the health implications, improve air quality in Montgomery County, and save the District money in fuel costs.”

Measuring Pollution Levels Inside Texas School Buses is a comprehensive study that details actual pollution levels in CISD buses and includes testing of technologies available to clean up the state’s entire school bus fleet. The report found that diesel particulate filters and closed crankcase filtration systems reduce diesel pollution by 95% bringing it to the level of a clean, 2007 diesel bus.

“We have worked hard with state officials to develop a strong program to clean-up our buses knowing already that these risks were real, and serious,” said Santos.  “To ensure the program is successful you have to dedicate the funds needed. Texans paid their dues and now we need to ensure the money is used for the reasons the State collected it— to improve air quality.”

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s budget projections show that more than $150 million in unspent clean air funds will be available in 2008-2009 from the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP).  Most of this dedicated funding comes from fees paid by everyday Texans each time they transfer a vehicle title.

Texas parents expect when their child rides a school bus they will be entering a safe environment,” said Casey Magnuson, Environmental Chair for the Texas Parent Teacher Association. “Without argument the school bus is the safest way to transport our students; however it is important we also think about the quality of the air inside those buses. This report shows Texas has a significant but solvable public health problem on its hands.  The risk is real and documented, the fix is simple, and the funding is available. When parents see these numbers, and see there’s a problem and a very reasonable solution, they wonder why it hasn’t been solved already.”

Measuring Pollution Levels Inside Texas School Buses is available for download at: www.cleanbuses.org or by linking here, http://www.environmentaldefense.org/documents/6153_bus_findings.pdf