"Pre-pandemic, about one in four AISD students rode the bus to school, and studies show these children breathe four times the amount of diesel fumes inhaled by children who ride in private vehicles," writes Impact Factory Innovator-in-Residence Mary Beth Bennett with fellow Dell Med students Madeline Hanes and Sanjana Ravi. "As children from low-income families are more likely to rely on school buses for transportation, disparities in diesel fume exposure exacerbate existing health inequities.
"Considering there's no safe level of diesel fumes for children, the amount of exposure bus riders get is striking: A single child who rides half an hour to and from school each weekday will spend a total of 180 hours per school year on the bus, breathing fumes."