Diesel School Buses

For more information on Diesel School Buses, visit:

Clean School Bus USA
A new national partnership to reduce children's exposure to diesel exhaust by eliminating unnecessary school bus idling, installing effective emission control systems on newer buses and replacing the oldest buses in the fleet with newer ones.

Featured Diesel School Buses Resources:

Clean School Bus USA
A new national partnership to reduce children's exposure to diesel exhaust by eliminating unnecessary school bus idling, installing effective emission control systems on newer buses and replacing the oldest buses in the fleet with newer ones.
Source: EPA - Office of Transportation and Air Quality
http://www.epa.gov/cleanschoolbus/

Indoor Air Quality Design Tools for Schools
Indoor air quality is a critically important aspect of creating and maintaining healthy school facilities. IAQ Design Tools for Schools will help school districts find the information resources they need to design, construct and renovate school facilities that will support the schools core mission of educating children.
Source: EPA - Office of Air and Radiation - Indoor Environments Division
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/schooldesign/

Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool (HealthySEAT)
HealthySEAT is a new software tool from EPA designed to help school districts conduct voluntary, customized self-assessments of their school facilities for environmental, health, and safety hazards.
Source: EPA - Office of Air and Radiation - Indoor Environments Division
http://www.epa.gov/schools

Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Improving Environmental Conditions in MA Schools
This website provides links to a variety of web resources that address how to improve the school environment. Topics such as facilities management (including a wide range of environmental, health and safety issues), hazardous waste site impacts on schools, transportation, and waste reduction and recycling are addressed.
Source: Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
http://www.mass.gov/dep/service/schools.htm

Environmental Compliance and Best Management Practices Guidance Manual
This comprehensive environmental manual is available on-line in both English and Spanish.
Source: EPA - Region 2
http://www.epa.gov/region02/children/k12/

Voluntary Diesel Retrofit Program
EPA has developed the Voluntary Diesel Retrofit Program to help make a difference in the immediate future. The program will address pollution from diesel construction equipment and heavy-duty vehicles that are currently on the road today. This Web site is designed to help fleet operators, air quality planners in state/local government and retrofit manufacturers understand this program and obtain the information they need to create effective retrofit projects.
Source: EPA - Office of Transportation and Air Quality
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/retrofit/

LEED for Schools
The LEED for Schools Rating System recognizes the unique nature of the design and construction of K-12 schools. Based on the LEED for New Construction rating system, it addresses issues such as classroom acoustics, master planning, mold prevention and environmental site assessment.
Source: U.S. Green Building Council
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1586

Children's School Bus Exposure Study
The Children's School Bus Exposure Study was conducted to characterize the range of children's exposures to diesel vehicle-related pollutants and other vehicle pollutants during their commutes to school by diesel school buses.
Source: California Air Resources Board
http://www.arb.ca.gov/research/schoolbus/schoolbus.htm

Collaborative for High Performance Schools
The Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) aims to increase the energy efficiency of public schools in California by marketing information, service, and incentive programs directly to school districts and designers. The Collaborative's goal is to facilitate the design of high performance schools: environments that are not only energy efficient, but also healthy, comfortable, well lit, and contain the amenities needed for a quality education.
Source: Collaborative for High Performance Schools
http://www.chps.net/

NCEF- Healthy School Environments Resource List
National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities resource list of links, books, and journal articles on environmentally safe and healthy school buildings.
Source: National Institute of Building Sciences - National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities
http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/healthy_schools.cfm

AIRNow
The AIRNow Web site provides information and maps on outdoor air pollution and what individuals can do to learn about, and improve, local air quality.
Source: EPA - Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards
http://www.epa.gov/airnow/

New Hampshire Healthy School Environments
This website provides links to resources to help schools assess and address health, safety and environmental issues in school buildings. Both a fact sheet on NH Department of Environmental Services (NH DES) efforts to customize EPA's HealthySEAT , as well as New Hampshire customization of the software may be downloaded from this site.
Source: New Hampshire Department of Envrionmental Services Air Resources Division - Air Resources Division
http://www.des.nh.gov/ARD/EHP/HSE

California -- Sustainable Schools
This website provides a diverse collection of sustainable building resources that will help schools create high performance educational facilities that will ensure the optimal health and productivity of students and faculty.
Source: California Division of the State Architect
http://www.sustainableschools.dgs.ca.gov/sustainableschools/

New England Asthma Regional Council Toolkit for Reducing Diesel Emissions
NE Asthma Regional Council created this toolkit to help school communities, environmental officials, and others make informed decisions about ways to reduce harmful diesel emissions from school buses. Both materials created by ARC and generated by others are included in the toolkit, including a variety of fact sheets.
Source: New England Asthma Regional Council
http://www.asthmaregionalcouncil.org/about/BusToolkit.htm

Tox Town
An introduction to toxic chemicals and environmental health risks you might encounter in everyday life, in everyday places, including schools.
Source: National Institutes of Health - National Library of Medicine
http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/index.html

Massachusetts Environmental Health and Safety Issues in Massachusetts' Primary Schools
The interagency Healthy Schools Council was tasked with identifying a list of the most important issues for schools to address in terms of environmental health and safety. A multi-agency/multi-media checklist was developed addressing these issues.
Source: Massachusetts Healthy Schools Council - Massachusetts Department of Public Health
http://www.state.ma.us/dph/beha/iaq/schools/schools.htm

Indiana - IDEM E-Newsletter for Indiana Educators
This newletter provides information on a range of environmental topics which schools must address.
Source: Indiana Department of Environmental Management
http://www.in.gov/idem/schoolnews

Energy Smart Schools
Energy smart schools provide more money for the classroom, a better learning environment, and increased energy awareness.
Source: Department of Energy - Office of Building Technology, State and Community Programs
http://www.eren.doe.gov/energysmartschools/

EPA Guide to Protecting Children's Health in Schools
Software tool developed by EPA Region 5 and Purdue University provides information on hazards found in schools, inlcuding a virtual tour of a school, the potential effects of those hazards on children's health, planning tools, case studies, and lnks to resources to help schools prevent and fix environmental problems.
Source: EPA Region 5 & Purdue University
http://www.epa.gov/seahome/child.html

Diesel Exhaust and School Bus Idling--EPA Region 1
This Region 1 web page includes a fact sheet which describes steps that can be taken to reduce diesel emissions, as well as the health effects associated with diesel exhaust.
Source: EPA Region 1
http://www.epa.gov/ne/eco/diesel/

EPA New England's K-12 Schools Website
This site discusses efforts to improve coordination and integration amongst EPA's many schools related programs, and provides links to Regional topic specific web sites, such as: asbestos, diesel school buses, drinking water, environmental management systems, energy, indoor air quality, lead, mercury and teacher and student resources. Links to national websites are provided as well.
Source: EPA Region 1
http://www.epa.gov/ne/schools

Maine Department of Education Facilities Management Template
Includes a draft ME School Facilities Maintenance Plan including checklists for Maintenance, Operations, Grounds, Custodial, and Vehicle Services
Source: Maine Department of Education
http://www.maine.gov/education/const/fmt.htm

Inventory of Federal School Environmental Health Activities
This inventory was prepared by the Schools Workgroup of the President's Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children and includes descriptions of major school related programs and activities of EPA and other Federal departments and Agencies.
Source: EPA -- President's Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children
http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.nsf/content/Inventory.htm/$file/Inventory.pdf

Illinois -- Greening Schools
Greening Schools offers FREE technical assistance, workshops for teachers, administrators and facility managers, and on-line resources related to pollution prevention for all Illinois schools.
Source: Illinois Waste Management and Research Center
http://www.greeningschools.org

Health Assessment Document for Diesel Exhaust
This assessment examined information regarding the possible health hazards associated with exposure to diesel engine exhaust (DE), which is a mixture of gases and particles.
Source: EPA - Office of Research and Development
http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/recordisplay.cfm?deid=29060

Massachusetts Healthy Schools Web site
The Massachusetts Healthy Schools Web site is a resource for promoting healthy indoor air environments and environmentally sustainable school buildings in Massachusetts.
Source: Massachusetts Public Health Association - Massachusetts Healthy Schools Network
http://www.mphaweb.org/pol_schools.html

California Diesel Exhaust
The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment's provides links to additional information and articles about diesel exhaust.
Source: California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
http://www.oehha.ca.gov/air/diesel_exhaust/index.html

California Lower-Emission School Bus Program
The Air Resources Board staff, in coordination with the California Energy Commission and the local air pollution control districts, has developed guidelines that provide criteria for the purchase of new school buses and retrofits of existing school buses to reduce particulate matter emissions.
Source: California Environmental Protection Agency - California Air Resource Board
http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/schoolbus/schoolbus.htm

California Diesel Programs
Information about three diesel programs: California's Diesel Risk Reduction Program, Diesel Fuel Program, and Mobile Source Programs Related to Diesel Engines.
Source: California Environmental Protection Agency - California Air Resource Board
http://www.arb.ca.gov/diesel/diesel.htm

12 Steps Toward a Healthier School
Children spend an enormous amount of their waking hours in the school environment. Children are a vulnerable population due to their small size and special physiology, and therefore it is important that schools be as environmentally safe as possible. Listed here are twelve areas of special concern.
Source: Environment & Human Health, Inc. -
http://www.ehhi.org/reports/12schools/