Mar 18, 2008 11:17 pm US/Central
MN School Bus Program Helps Clear the Air
(WCCO)
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Project Green Fleet brings together businesses, non-profits and government agencies to retrofit the older school bus fleet in the state.
CBS
There have been an increasing number of air pollution alerts in the Twin Cities and even greater Minnesota. One source of the problem is vehicle exhaust especially diesel. However, Minnesota is leading the nation with a voluntary program for school buses to clear the air.
Izzy Miller rides the bus home from school but this 10-year-old knows all too well to watch out for things that can trigger an asthma attack.
"If it's really dirty on the school bus, that can make me cough," said Miller.
Diesel exhaust from vehicles like school buses has long been linked to heart and lung problems, especially asthma. This kind of air pollution has small particulate matter that can be inhaled and lodge deep into the lungs causing serious damage.
"With school buses I worry because the kids stand in long lines and they wait quite a while to get on. And there's also usually many buses piled up, one in front of the other so there's a lot of exhaust and the kids could be standing there inhaling that for several minutes," said Miller's mom Kimberly Bouzguenda. She doesn't want her daughter to have to use her asthma medicine more than necessary.
Steve Klossner is a scientific consultant with the American Lung Association of Minnesota. WCCO-TV asked him to check the exhaust coming out of a 2007 school bus and another one built in 1995.
He found the small particulate pollution coming out of the older bus measured more than 425 million particles per meter with only about 67 particles per meter from the newer bus. That's more than 80 percent cleaner.
It's illegal in Minnesota for buses to unnecessarily idle out in front of the schools and that helps cut back on pollution problems. But there's also an effort underway to clean up school bus emissions called Project Green Fleet.
"This project helps to eliminate anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of the pollution that's coming out of the diesel powered buses," said Kabby Jones, Manager of Environmental Projects with the Minnesota Environmental Initiative.
Jones oversees the project which brings together businesses, non-profits and government agencies to retrofit the older school bus fleet in the state.
"So these are buses that are typically anywhere from five to 10 years old that we're working with to try to get them cleaned up because they are going to be on the road a lot longer," said Jones.
The buses are brought into the shop to get a new part on the tail pipe and a new filter in the engine.
"There have been studies that have shown that the air quality on the bus can be up to five times worse than the air quality outside of the bus," said Jones. "So when you think of kids that are driving around for 10 minutes up to an hour a day breathing in that air that's potentially polluted with the diesel exhaust."
"The two pieces that we use really clean up both ends. Clean up a lot of the pollution that's entering the bus likely from the engine compartment. And then a lot of the pollution that's also being emitted just into the ambient air," said Jones.
It's helping clear the air for all of us especially kids like Izzy Miller.
"It is helpful to kids who do have asthma because then they are being able to know that there, that it's safe to be able to breathe that air just in and out like you would in the Canadian wilderness or something," said Miller.
The bus retrofit program costs school districts nothing. So far Project Green Fleet has cleaned up 500 buses with money to do another 600 this year. To see how to get your school involved check out www.projectgreenfleet.org.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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