Every child deserves a healthy start to life. A recent study may help make that a reality for more families soon.
TechXplore reported that adopting electric school buses may generate significant health benefits and cost savings. The first-of-its-kind study by researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health determined that switching diesel school buses to electric can bring nearly $250,000 in health and climate benefits per individual bus.
In the U.S., about 547,000 school buses are in use, according to schoolbusfleet.com. The majority of the buses are older and run on diesel fuel. The research details that replacing diesel buses with electric ones in a city with a population of over one million could achieve $207,200 in health benefits per bus, according to Tech Xplore.
In addition to the specific savings mentioned previously, improving air quality and children's health could lead to $82 million in overall economic savings.
"Our data offer strong evidence that accelerating the ongoing transition to electric school buses will benefit individual, public, and planetary health," said Kari Nadeau, senior author of the study.
More electric school buses would allow more children to live a better quality of life.
Reduced air pollution would lower childhood asthma and mortality rates, especially in low-income urban communities where children are disproportionately affected by air pollution.
Cleaner air would also mean fewer missed school days, allowing children to focus on learning and stay on track. A recent study published in the National Library of Medicine found that even low levels of air pollution are associated with children missing school.
"In a dense urban setting … the savings incurred from electrifying these buses outweigh the costs of replacement," stated Nadeau.
Discoveries are happening daily to provide new information on why reducing air pollution is crucial. Scientists in Australia have developed a device that can remove planet-warming gas from the air and convert it into usable energy.
In the near future, we may have to add the lyric "the battery on the bus charges up, up, up" to the Wheels On The Bus nursery rhyme.
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