Diesel Exhaust
Another significant risk on American roads is diesel exhaust. Diesel exhaust is considered a likely human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency, and it also exacerbates asthma symptoms and other pulmonary problems.
Approximately 24 million children ride school buses on a daily basis. Children, the most vulnerable to the effects of air pollution and carcinogens generally, are the most heavily exposed to diesel exhaust when they ride the school bus every day.
American children receive exposures to diesel exhaust dozens of times higher than that considered a cancer risk by the EPA. Adding a particulate trap to catch the millions of tiny particles that might otherwise lodge in children’s developing lungs would cut the risk to our children tremendously, but bus companies have not stepped up to make the changes that could protect our children.
Working with a group of environmental non-profit organizations—the Environmental Law Foundation, Communities for a Better Environment and Our Children’s Earth Foundation—Baron & Budd has sued school bus operators in California that expose children to high levels of diesel particulate matter without warning families of the danger. California’s Proposition 65 requires companies to warn people before exposing them to a substance, like diesel exhaust, known to the State of California to cause cancer. We are urging school bus operators to upgrade or retrofit their buses with particulate traps that will decrease children’s exposure to harmful diesel exhaust and help protect children’s health.
