Scientist Demonstrates Effectiveness of School Bus Pollution Filters at Capitol, Reinforces Urgency of Passing Senate Bill 1032 to Fund Statewide School Bus Retrofits, May '07 Press

Press release for the school monitoring event ENE and its partners in the Connecticut Alliance Against Diesel Pollution (CAADP) held on May 8, 2007 outside the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.  The goal of the event was to draw attention to a Senate Bill calling for $11 million to retrofit 3,400 Connecticut school buses with pollution control equipment. Diesel exhaust can build up inside the cabins of conventional diesel schoolbuses, putting children at risk of asthma attacks, and other cardiovascular and respiratory problems.

Clean Air Task Force Senior Scientist Bruce Hill used an air pollution monitor to demonstrate how diesel particulate filters reduce tailpipe soot particle emissions up to 90%. Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., Senator Bill Finch, and Rep. Denise Merrill, D-Mansfield spoke at the event, as did Alice Liddell, ENE policy analyst.

Several Connecticut TV channels, Connecticut NPR, and the Hartford Courant covered the event. SB 1032, An Act Reducing Diesel Emissions in School Bus Cabins, was passed in June and the legislation’s operative provisions were ultimately incorporated into the budget implementer, Public Act No. 074.