School bus in USA
Every day, half a million school buses safely carry 24 million American children to school, field trips and athletic events.
Unfortunately, most buses are powered by diesel engines that actually pollute the air inside the bus. Studies show the pollution gets trapped inside the bus, where kids breathe it in.
Soot from two sources
Pollution come from emissions from the tailpipe and from the engine. Engine emissions (also referred to as crankcase emissions) enter the school bus cabin mostly through the door and the floorboard.
Because the door is right near the engine, engine emissions get sucked into the school bus, every time the door opens.
Unhealthy diesel exhaust
Diesel engines spew out nearly 40 toxic substances, smog-forming emissions and particulate matter (PM), better known as soot. Coarse and fine particles (PM10 and PM2.5) are breathed deeply into the lungs where they can lodge, creating serious, even life-threatening health problems (more on the health effects of soot and the problem with diesel).
Children are at particular risk because their lungs are still developing. Kids also breathe two times more air per pound of body weight than adults do. The damage to young lungs can result in reduced lung function by adulthood and other dangerous health problems.
Particle Pollution Health Risks
• aggravated asthma
• lung inflammation
• heart problems
• possible cancer
• premature death
Children receive an extra dose of pollution twice a day
pollution in school bus
Children riding buses older than 2007 models receive an extra dose of pollution on each ride: monitoring shows that the diesel pollution inside a typical school bus can be up to five times higher than the outside air.
Unless your child’s school bus has been retrofitted with a filter or your child is riding on a brand new 2007 school bus, chances are, your child is breathing in unhealthy pollution levels.
Solutions are at hand
Science indicates that even short-term exposure to elevated particulate levels can have detrimental health effects. The good news is that children do not have to be exposed to diesel school bus pollution. Cost-effective solutions are available. Four Steps to Cleaner Buses.
To cut harmful soot pollution by 90 percent, a bus can be replaced with a new 2007 engine model year bus or retrofitted with a filtering device on the tailpipe, called a diesel particulate filter (DPF).
Engine emissions can easily be eliminated with a crankcase ventilation system (CCVS). A CCVS reroutes the engine emissions to the engine air intake preventing harmful emissions from escaping into the air and the bus cabin.
While working on the long term solution, the immediate action you may take is to install a personal filter (face mask) for your children. However, a surgical mask is useless since the airborne particulates can easily bypass the mask and enter the breathing zone through the gaps. N95 respirator is not available for children because NIOSH never certify any for use on children. Luckily TOTOBOBO mask is now available and it is the first fitting mask designed with the need of children in mind. Even though it is not certified, it is easy to see how it seal the small faces of children. There is even a choice of two different filters; 96% or 94%. The 96% provide higher protection level than N95 mask, and the 94% is only 1% less than N95 mask and has very low breathing resistance.
Reference reading: CLEAN SCHOOL BUS
Idle School bus may be harming your child’s lung
Read more about TOTOBOBO mask for children :
The best fitting mask for children
Say no to pollution in school buses
time for a better mask for children
protect children from incense smoke
How to’s
How to customize TOTOBOBO mask for your children?
How to wash TOTOBOBO mask for reuse?
How to check the mask-to-face-seal without fit-test equipment?
Buy TOTOBOBO mask for children
Tagged as:
children,
children health,
diesel,
disel soot,
PM10,
PM2.5,
pollution,
school bus,
tailpipe
