Retrofit Program Reaching Kids

Twenty-four million students commute to and from school in almost 600,000 school buses every day in the U.S. Once inside the bus, students are exposed to six times more diesel exhaust emissions then if they were outside of the bus.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), there are 21 different chemicals in bus exhaust that have been linked to respiratory diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, and lung cancer. In order to help reduce these dangerous chemicals, Cinergy Corporation granted the Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services $100,000 to retrofit 140 school buses with diesel oxidation catalysts

DOCs are installed on school buses and use a chemical process to break down pollutants in the exhaust stream into less harmful components. This reduces the emission of carbon monoxide by 40 percent, hydrocarbons by 50 percent and particulate matter by at least 20 percent.

Fourteen schools that own their own buses were selected to participate in the 2005-2006 project. These schools include:

• Bethel-Tate Local School District

• Deer Park Community City Schools

• Finneytown Schools

• Forest Hills School District

• Indian Hill Exempted Village Schools

• Loveland Public Schools

• Meriemont City Schools

• New Richmond Exempted Village Schools

• Northwest Local Schools

• Princeton City Schools

• Ross Local Schools

• St. Bernard Elmwood Place City Schools

• Three Rivers Local Schools

• Winton Woods City Schools

For more information on the School Bus Retrofit Program visit www.hcdoes.org.