What do school buses, and transitioning to electric fleets, have to do with equity? Great question — glad you asked!
Scientists agree that diesel school buses pollute the air we breathe. Diesel exhaust can cause or worsen asthma, lung and heart illnesses, and even cancer; breathing in its fumes is associated with more missed days of school and work (as well as lower test scores) and shorter lifespans. Children, whose lungs and brains are still developing, are especially vulnerable. Diesel, in short, is harmful and deadly to kids.
But diesel pollution isn’t experienced equally by all children. School districts in low-income communities are more likely to have older and dirtier diesel buses in their fleet, and to keep them longer due to budget constraints. Children from low-income families, Black, Latine and Indigenous children, and disabled children are more likely than their peers to take the bus to school. This means kids of color and from low-income families, as well as those with a disability, breathe in more toxic diesel exhaust simply by riding in diesel school buses.
On top of this, due to centuries of redlining and other forms of housing and economic discrimination, children of color and from low-income families live in neighborhoods with disproportionately dirty air, near major sources of pollution like highways, industrial plants, and warehouses. Black, Latine, and Indigenous children are more likely to suffer from asthma, more likely to be hospitalized due to asthma, and more likely to die in an asthma attack. Diesel school buses compound such inequalities and put these children at higher risk of death and illness.
All children deserve to breathe clean air, no matter their race, ethnicity, family income or zip code. Electric school buses emit no tailpipe emissions, significantly reducing the contaminants children are exposed to. By placing electric school buses in the communities with the dirtiest air, we can greatly improve the health and wellbeing of the children most suffering from pollution.
How can this be accomplished? The Alliance for Electric School Buses urges policymakers to target any electric school bus deployment, funding, and technical assistance to the children living with the worst air quality: students from low-income communities and communities of color. Study after study has found that race/ethnicity is the best predictor of pollution exposure, and that income is not a good proxy for race/ethnicity. We call on policymakers to use race and ethnicity as criteria for prioritization of electric school bus programs, as well as ozone and particulate matter pollution, income, asthma rates, and other evidence of health and economic inequities.
Achieving equitable outcomes also requires intentionality, follow-through, and ongoing engagement and consultation of impacted communities. The Alliance for Electric School Buses encourages policymakers to engage impacted communities to set expected results from electric school bus projects and track outcomes regularly. Measuring progress towards these goals will not only allow the opportunity to course-correct as needed, but will also help ensure public dollars are achieving the most good for the children who desperately need cleaner air.
Looking for data that backs this up? Here’s a compilation of academic studies and other data:
Diesel pollution impacts our heart, lungs, and brain.
- Diesel exhaust has been classified as a cancer-causing agent by the EPA.
- A 2022 study from the University of British Columbia and University of Victoria found that just two hours of exposure to diesel exhaust fumes can lower cognitive performance, the ability to think, remember, and make decisions.
- A 2019 study in London found that diesel pollution reduces children’s lung capacity.
- A 2017 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that toxins associated with diesel increased mortality rates.
- A 2023 study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that implementing stricter limits on particulate matter pollution could reduce mortality rates by up to 7% for Black and low-income Americans.
- A 2016 study that found that high exposure to urban air pollution slows brain development in children.
- A 2013 study from Louisiana State University found that exposure to diesel exhaust induces cardiac dysfunction. A 2011 study from the University of Edinburgh found that diesel exhaust raises the risk of blood clots, heart attacks and strokes.
- A 2011 study by the University of Minnesota and Tulane University found that retrofitting diesel school buses significantly lowered rates of bronchitis, asthma, and pneumonia among children and adults.
Diesel pollution is linked to poorer academic performance and missed days of school.
- A 2022 study from the University of Michigan found that retrofitting diesel school buses results in higher school attendance. In the study, replacing older diesel school buses with newer, cleaner models prevented at least 350,000 absences in one year.
- A 2020 study from the University of Utah found that third-grade students scored worse on standardized English and math tests on days with the worst air pollution.
- A 2019 study from Georgia State University found that retrofitting diesel school buses increased aerobic capacity in children and improved English and math test scores.
- A 2016 study from American University found that students score 1-2% lower on math and reading work on days with high levels of pollution, but asthmatic students score 10% lower on days with high levels of ozone.
Low-income children, Black children, and children with disabilities are more likely to ride the bus to school, meaning they are more likely to be exposed to toxic diesel pollution.
- A Brown University study in 2021 found that Black children are especially more likely to have longer bus rides to school.
- According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, 60% of low-income students ride the bus to school, compared to 45% of non-low-income students.
- A 2009 study by the Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that half of students with disabilities ride on school buses, compared to a third of children without disabilities.
Low-income children and especially Black and Latinx children are already more likely to live in neighborhoods with disproportionately dirtier air.
- According to the American Lung Association (ALA), people of color are 3.7 times more likely than white people to live in a county with failing grades for air quality. In the counties with the worst air quality that receive failing grades for all three pollution measures (ozone, yearly particulate matter pollution and daily particulate matter pollution), 72% of the 18 million residents affected are people of color, compared to the 28% who are white. The ALA also finds that people experiencing poverty are more likely to live in close proximity to sources of pollution and are more susceptible to air pollution.
- A University of Washington study in 2021 found that people of color, regardless of zip code or income, are exposed to more particulate matter pollution from cars, trucks, and power plants.
- A 2021 study found that Black, Latine and Asian communities have higher exposure to particulate matter pollution, particularly from industry, passenger gas vehicles, construction, and heavy-duty diesel vehicles (such as school buses). The study found these exposure disparities held true across individual U.S. states, within urban or rural areas, across incomes, and even across exposure levels.
- A 2019 study from the Union of Concerned Scientists found that Asian, Black, and Latine residents in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region are exposed to 66% more air pollution from cars, trucks and buses than white residents. For Latines, exposure was 75% higher, for Asian Americans 73% higher, and for Black residents 61% higher.
- A 2022 study found that urban neighborhoods redlined in the 1930s have higher levels of asthma even today.
Black, Latine, and Indigenous children are more likely to suffer from, and even die from, asthma.
- According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black children, regardless of income or zip code, are 40% more likely to have asthma; 14 percent of them do. Worse yet, as of 2019, Black children are eight times more likely to die from asthma than white children.
- According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Latine children are 40% more likely to have asthma and 40% more likely to die from asthma, compared to non-Latine white children. Puerto Rican children are 3 times more likely to have asthma than non-Latine white children.
- According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Indigenous children are 20% more likely to have asthma compared to non-Latine white children.
- A study by the Childhood Respiratory and Environmental Workgroup (CREW) conducted in 2022 found that Black and Latine children had higher rates of asthma than white children, even in neighborhoods with higher incomes.
Race, not income, is the best predictor of exposure to pollution. Ignoring race in policymaking will worsen pollution for low-income, Black, and Latinx children.
- A University of California study found that if race is ignored when deciding where to deploy environmental policies, Black, Asian, and Latinx communities could suffer from more air pollution than before.
A 2021 study found that Black, Latine, Asian and other communities of color are disproportionately exposed to particulate matter pollution, and that exposure levels are pronounced for people of color even at all income levels. Exposure when defined by race varies more than when defined by income — people of color being 2.4 times more exposed to PM pollution than white people — making income a poor determinant of who is exposed to more pollution.