Letter: Cleaner fuel options available for Duke bus system
(11/20/02 5:00am)
Ever been walking, jogging or riding your bike on campus and felt your lungs tighten up after a bus passes you belching black smoke? According to a recently released 651-page report by the Environmental Protection Agency on the adverse health effects of diesel exhaust, you were not imagining that respiratory discomfort. While the report details the cancer-causing effects of long-term exposure to diesel emissions, it also concludes that such short-term exposure to diesel emissions "can induce irritation to the eye, nose and throat, as well as inflammatory responses in the airways and lung" such as asthma.