STUDY FINDS AVERAGE POLLUTION AT SCHOOL NEAR LAUSD BUS YARD.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

Tests of the air around Sun Valley Middle School, which backs up to an LAUSD bus yard, turned up only average levels of pollution, results that shocked teachers and parents who have complained about noxious diesel odors wafting in from next door.

Regulators tested for 10 microns and smaller, which are invisible to the eye but can penetrate the lungs, enter the bloodstream and exacerbate asthma. Vehicle exhaust is a major source of such particles.

The tests were conducted Feb. 26 to April 27 by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which released the results last month. The results show the fine particles never exceeded federal or more stringent state health standards.

``We didn't see anything that was unusual, even though there is a school bus yard adjacent to the campus,'' said Henry Hogo, the AQMD's assistant deputy executive officer for science and technology advancement.

Hogo cautioned that the monitoring results are merely a snapshot of air quality at the school, based on one piece of equipment, and that the results don't change the AQMD's position that schools should switch buses to cleaner fuels.

Diesel contains some 40 toxic chemical compounds. The fine particles in exhaust exacerbate asthma and other breathing problems and the gases have been linked to decreased lung function in children.

``You shouldn't be exposed to exhaust fumes no matter what the monitoring results are,'' Hogo said. ``The potential risk is still there.''

The risk might be there but teachers and parents at the school had hoped the tests would force the Los Angeles Unified School District to move the bus yard - immediately.

District officials have consistently told Sun Valley Middle School Principal Jeff Davis it's too expensive to move the bus yard.

For him, the bus yard is an offense to common sense.

``To me, it makes no sense to have these things around our kids learning,'' he said. ``We have an asthma clinic on campus. It's right next to the bus yard.''

As scientists discover more risks from breathing diesel exhaust, environmental groups and air regulators have turned their attention to school buses. Children are particularly susceptible because their bodies are still developing and they breathe at twice the rate of an adult.

``Knowing what we know about the effects of diesel on human health and the environment, I think it's unconscionable'' to keep the bus yard next to the school, said Robina Suwal, who heads California Safe Schools. She said it was hard to believe that monitoring data didn't show higher pollution levels at the school.

Todd Campbell, policy director at the Coalition for Clean Air, said placing the bus yard next to the school isn't ideal but might not be the worst situation either.

``It wouldn't surprise me if the pollution isn't extremely high because LAUSD has an idling policy,'' Campbell said, noting the directive to bus drivers to limit running bus engines near schools. ``If the yard was following the rules then they may have less emissions.''

Los Angeles City Councilman Tony Cardenas, who represents Sun Valley, called the study a step in the right direction to understanding the area's pollution problems.

``We need to be asking if this and other studies to come are comprehensive enough to put our minds at ease,'' Cardenas said. ``The community is not going to rest on one study's laurels.''

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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