Children's Exposures/Health Effects/Diesel Exhaust

Study Summary

The contribution of diesel exhaust (DE) to health, especially children's health, is of tremendous public health interest. DE has been associated with worsening asthma and allergies, among other important health effects. Reducing DE exposures has become a major regulatory initiative, and federal, state, and local jurisdictions are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in retrofitting diesel engines in school buses and other changes to reach this goal. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent regulations require all on-road diesel vehicles to change to low emission engines and ultra-low-sulfur fuels by 2007 (US EPA '00). In spring 2003, the U.S. EPA announced a nationwide voluntary school bus retrofit initiative. In July 2003, the Washington Legislature enacted a statewide "Diesel Solutions" program that provides 25 million dollars by 2008 to retrofit school diesel buses with cleaner burning engines and fuels, making it one of the largest and most active voluntary school bus retrofit program in the country. If risk assessment estimates are accurate, these changes will have a large public health impact, especially on children who ride school buses daily. However, no studies to-date have rigorously examined school children's exposure to diesel exhaust (DE) and its health effects, nor such a significant change in vehicular pollution control. We propose to seize this opportunity of a large natural experiment taking place in the Puget Sound area and conduct a study to assess health effects from diesel bus exhaust before and after the retrofit of diesel bus fleets between 2005 and 2007. The specific aims of the study are to: 1. Determine whether asthmatic children changing to retrofitted buses with cleaner fuels and engines have a reduction in sub-clinical and clinical asthma severity. 2. Determine if increased levels of DE exposure lead to an increase in acute clinical and sub-clinical features of asthma in children. 3. Quantify the levels and changes in par

Conditions Studied

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