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More than 23 million children in the United States ride a bus to school.
But, is riding the school bus a cancer risk for your child?
While two environmental groups are saying it may be, others are saying it's not.
According to a press release from the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Coalition for Clean Air, a child who rides a diesel school bus may be exposed to up to four times more toxic diesel exhaust than someone traveling in a car directly in front of the bus.
Excess exhaust levels, according to a study conducted by the NRDC and CCA, were more than eight times the average levels found in the ambient air in California and 23 to 46 times higher than levels considered to be a significant cancer risk according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and federal guidelines.
However, some organizations, including the School Bus Information Council, refute the charges about diesel fumes inside school buses.
In a press release, the council reports, "The charge by certain environmental groups that diesel fumes cause increased cancer risk to children riding in school buses cries out for perspective so parents and children alike will not be needlessly alarmed."
The council refers to a Los Angeles Times newspaper article that charges the study has notable limitations and the allegations are based on anecdotal evidence from just four older buses in the Los Angeles, Calif., area. The article also reports, according to the council's press release, that "any theoretical increase in the cancer risk to children is still small, however, compared to the one-in-five chance of contracting cancer that everyone in the United States faces."
Della Swain, Transportation Director for Warsaw Community Schools, says the buses tested for the study were manufactured before 1988, before the implementation of diesel engine emissions requirements.
"Those buses were very, very old," Swain said.
WCS currently has 60 buses and transports more than 4,700 students a year. The oldest bus in Warsaw's fleet is a 1988 bus.
"We test them ourselves," she said, and the Indiana State Police tests the buses annually, including testing the exhaust systems. Any buses more than 12 years old, she said, have to be inspected twice a year by the ISP.
Swain said about 10 percent of the corporation's buses are replaced every year, when possible. They are also working "toward a 10-year replacement schedule."
In the study, researches from NRDC, the U.C. Berkely School of Public Health and the Coalition for Clean Air rode rented school buses along actual elementary school bus routes in the L.A. area. With high-tech equipment continuously sampling the air inside the buses for diesel exhaust, the air quality inside the front of the bus and in back of the bus was compared with windows opened and closed. Air quality outside the bus was also tested as well as in a passenger car traveling ahead of the bus, according to the NRDC press release. The buses were tested while idling, climbing or descending hills and traveling slowly with frequent stops.
NRDC and CCA contends that, based on that testing and assuming bus rides total one or more hours per day, 180 days per year for 10 years, the diesel exhaust exposures are likely to result in an additional 23 to 46 cancer cases per million children exposed.
Gina Solomon, M.D., M.P.H, NRDC senior scientist said, in the press release, "Children are especially sensitive to environmental hazards, yet they're the ones getting dosed with diesel riding to school. The levels we measured on some of these buses both surprised and worried us. Worse still, we have reason to believe that these high levels are fairly typical."
Buses used in the study, the School Bus Council reported in their press release, appear to have been manufactured before the implementation of diesel engine emissions requirements in 1988. The school bus industry, the council says, has taken the lead on diesel engine technology improvements.
"In fact," according to the council, "school buses are a great American success story, with a safety record that is unequaled in motor vehicle transportation. It would be unfortunate if any parent in California or elsewhere removes a child from a school bus in reaction to this story - especially since there is a very real and far greater risk to children in California and the nation."
The council says some 600 children are killed yearly because they take some form of transportation other than a school bus to and from school.
"I agree completely," said Swain. She said the manufacturing specifications for school buses are very strict.
However, not every bus is up to modern standards, the NRDC press release claims. Many buses are more than 10 years old and are much more polluting than the diesel buses manufactured today.
"In fact," their press release says, "some fleets - including those in California, Washington and Texas - include buses manufactured prior to 1977, before federal highway safety standards were even adopted."
"Frightening parents and children about the safety of school bus transportation is an unfair way for the environmental advocates to promote their agenda and stoke the fires of debate about air quality in California," according to the School Bus Council press release.
Todd Campbell, policy director for CCA, in the NRDC press release, said, "School districts can reduce a child's exposure to smog-forming chemicals by as much as 43 percent and toxic particles by another 78 percent just by making a switch to alternative fuel school buses. Diesel school buses remain the dirtiest option available on the market today."
NRDC and CCA also recommend bus operators improve air quality on buses by keeping the windows open on the bus when and where possible and seating children closer to the front of the bus first.
"Diesel fuel itself does smell differently than regular gas," said Swain.
If a student thinks there is an exhaust problem on the bus, they are encouraged to notify the bus driver and the bus will get an inspection, if warranted, Swain said.
