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EPA Asks Schools to Protect Kids, Stop Bus Idling

Release Date: 9/16/2002
Contact Information: Bill Dunbar
[email protected]
(206) 553-1203

September 16, 2002
Diesel fumes, soot particularly harmful to youngsters

In an effort to protect school children from the harmful effects of diesel exhaust and soot, the Northwest regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency has asked schools in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to encourage school bus drivers to shut-off idling diesel engines.

In his letter to all the states’ school district superintendents, EPA Regional Administrator L. John Iani said, “(h)ealth studies have shown that exposure to diesel exhaust can cause lung damage, increased frequency and severity of asthma attacks, and increased cancer risks. . . . kids are the most vulnerable. Their respiratory systems are not fully developed, and that means they breathe twice as much air as adults, per pound of body weight.” (Letter is attached)

Specifically, the EPA letter recommends that schools:

• urge bus drivers to turn off engines upon reaching school or as soon as engine spec’s permit;
• in severe climate conditions, idle buses off school grounds and only as long as necessary;
• institute an emissions testing program; and
• correlate the longest bus routes to the cleanest-running vehicles.

The letter to superintendents preceded the release last week of EPA’s Health Assessment for Diesel Exhaust (https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/recordisplay.cfm?deid=29060). The assessment reiterates long-held concerns about diesel exhaust’s impact of human health, particularly on lungs.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that five million American school children suffer from asthma and in the past 15 years the asthma rate for children under the age of five has increased by 160 percent.