SAN FRANCISCO (August 6, 2008)
Environmental Law Foundation, Our Children’s Earth and Communities for a Better Environment, three Bay Area environmental organizations, and Laidlaw Transit, Inc. agreed to a settlement of a lawsuit, under which Laidlaw will provide California’s school children with newer and cleaner buses.
Durham School Services, the second largest private school bus operator in the state, agreed to start phasing in clean school buses to districts they serve throughout California by the end of this year, with full phase-in by 2014. As school districts across the nation struggle to improve air quality on board school buses, this move significantly reduces children’s exposure to diesel exhaust and confirms Durham’s commitment to the health and safety of California school children. Details and Downloads
Environmental Law Foundation, Communities for a Better Environment and Our Children’s Earth Foundation are asking a court in San Francisco to require Laidlaw, the nation’s largest school bus contractor to place warning signs about diesel exhaust on school buses throughout California. The signs would warn children and parents about cancer risks created by diesel exhaust that enters the buses from the engines and exhaust train. The groups filed for an injunction asking the court to order warnings before the next school year. The request is part of a lawsuit brought by the groups in 2006 under California’s Proposition 65, which requires warnings about cancer risks before people are exposed to a list of chemicals “known to the state to cause cancer.” California placed diesel engine exhaust on the list in 1990. Papers filed with the motion, however, suggest that Laidlaw’s San Francisco division has far more to worry about than placing cancer warnings on buses. Details and downloads.
ELF files suit against Southern California Gas Company, operator of an underground natural gas storage facility in the Playa del Rey area of Los Angeles, for releasing chemicals into protected aquifers. Read Press Release, View Complaint, Exhibits & FAQs
San Francisco Chronicle story about ELF’s litigation against Laidlaw Transit, Inc. Read Article.
ELF, et.al v. LAIDLAW TRANSIT INC., et al.
(children’s exposure to diesel engine exhaust)
ELF is joined by Our Children’s Earth Foundation in litigation against Laidlaw Transit, Inc., the largest school bus contractor in North America, for failing to warn parents that children who ride diesel buses are exposed to diesel engine exhaust, a mixture of chemicals known to cause cancer. Recent studies have shown that a significant amount of the pollution on a school bus is “self-pollution” from the bus’ own exhaust and a child riding inside a diesel school bus may be exposed to as much as 4 times the level of toxic diesel engine exhaust as someone riding in a car along the same route. The lawsuit is filed under California’s Proposition 65 (the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986) and seeks a court order to provide warnings about the diesel engine exhaust by the time the next school year starts.
Read Original Complaint, filed May 2, 2006 (pdf)
New York Times article about the acrylamide litigation in California. Read Article
Environmental Law Foundation files suit against potato chip manufacturers. Read Press Release
Despite the Hype, Bottled Water is Neither Cleaner nor Greener Than Tap Water. Read about it on E Magazine’s website.