We’re all familiar with the big, yellow school bus. Right now, there are about 480,000 of them on American roads driving more than 25 million children to school every day. The school bus has a different meaning to each person that experiences it. For most, it’s a positive experience of getting kids to school and back to their homes. What often gets overlooked by parents and communities is the harm most of these buses are doing to our kids’ health.
According to the Diesel Technology Forum, 95% of U.S. school buses run on diesel fuel. That’s a huge majority of buses out there exposing kids and communities to dangerous chemicals, such as nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and carbon dioxide — all which hurt our health.