Issues > September/October 2002 (#92) > The Diesel on the Bus...and Other Children's Health Issues

The Diesel on the Bus...and Other Children's Health Issues

In addition to lead paint, pesticides and other toxic chemicals used in and around schools, playgrounds and homes, children can be exposed to harmful substances from what seem like benign everyday sources, from cheery school buses to silly chew toys. New research is shedding light on these exposures and what we can do to protect children from harm.

The Diesel on the Bus

Nine out of ten of the nation's 454,000 school buses burn diesel fuel, which emits ultrafine particles that can provoke asthma attacks and increase the risk of cancer, according to a Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) study released in February 2002. In Connecticut, Environment and Human Health, Inc., a nonprofit research organization, tracked 15 children on school buses with personal air monitors and found that they were exposed to far higher levels of the tiny particles than air at stationary monitoring sites showed.

"Schoolchildren riding buses or playing near idling buses are exposed to diesel exhaust on a daily basis," says Patricia Monahan, a senior analyst at UCS. The healthiest solution would be switching to clean-burning natural gas, she adds.

Lead: the Same Old Problem

Lead, a brain-damaging heavy metal banned in paint since 1978 and in gasoline since 1986, is still causing developmental and behavioral problems in children. Nearly one million U.S. children ages 1 to 5 have elevated blood-lead levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The good news: According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 64 million homes (out of 96 million) were estimated to have lead-paint hazards in 1990; by 2000, that number had gone down to 38 million. The bad news: Pockets of lead poisoning remain, particularly among minorities and the poor. In New York City between 1995 and 2000, more than 60,000 children contracted lead poisoning, 94 percent of whom were black, Asian or Hispanic, according to the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), which recently released a report. As Andrew Goldberg, general counsel to NYPIRG, says, "Just because the numbers are going down doesn't mean we should pack up and go home."

Lead in pregnant women can cause spontaneous abortions, stillbirth and low birth weight. A recent Harvard University study of 197 Mexican women with high levels of lead in their bones found that their two-year-olds suffered mental impairment comparable to that of children exposed to lead paint. A new study tested 33 pregnant New York women with lead poisoning, and found that their exposure came mostly from ingesting dirt or clay, and using imported pottery for cooking and serving food.

Personal Phthalates

Phthalates are a class of chemicals found in soft vinyl used in some blood bags, IV lines and toys, as well as other products (see cover story). In animal studies, some phthalates have been found to harm the developing male reproductive system and cause liver cancer. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has asked manufacturers to voluntarily stop using the chemicals in teethers and toys for children under three. In a nationwide "body burden" study in 2000, the CDC established that several phthalates are present in our bodies, and that women of reproductive age carried significantly higher levels. An independent lab hired by Health Care Without Harm recently tested common beauty products such as hair sprays, perfumes, deodorants, nail polish and moisturizing lotions, and found phthalates in 52 of 72 products tested.

For more on children's environmental health:

• See The Green Guide #82/83, #74/75, #56/57 and #54/55, at the archives on The Green Guide website.
• Center for Children's Health and the Environment, www.childenvironment.org
• Children's Health Environmental Coalition, www.checnet.org
• Institute for Children's Environmental Health, 360/221-7995, www.iceh.org
• Environmental Working Group, 202/667-6982, www.ewg.org