courant.com | Remedy For School Bus Pollution Shown: "The yellow school buses idling outside the Legislative Office Building in Hartford on Tuesday morning didn't carry children to watch lawmakers in action; they were there to show off a mechanical remedy for diesel pollution, one of the state's top environmental priorities.
Reporters focused cameras and even microphones on the buses' burbling tailpipes as Bruce Hill, a scientist for the national Clean Air Task Force, knelt to measure their toxic exhaust.
One bus, typical of the thousands of full-size school buses on the road in Connecticut, emitted up to 1,000 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter. Another, equipped with a $5,000 filter system - 'it's a fancy muffler,' Hill said - registered near zero.
Hill's demonstration was staged by legislative and environmental leaders to win support for a bill that would provide $11 million to retrofit the 3,400 school buses capable of accepting the filter systems. At present, exhaust leaking into bus cabins can create fume levels 10 times greater than outside air. ..."
