Greg Hunter: School Bus Study

Feb. 7 -- The following is an unedited, uncorrected transcript of Greg Hunter's report, which aired on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America on Thursday, Feb. 7.

ABCNEWS' DIANE SAWYER:But now we turn back to this story. Important news for every parentof children who ride school buses. Later today, a new study fromYale University will be released, saying the amount of diesel fumesemitted by most school buses reaches levels that are substantiallyhigher than the government standard. And those fumes are goingdirectly into the air your children breathe. Our consumercorrespondent Greg Hunter has an exclusive look at the study.

ABCNEWS' CONSUMER CORRESPONDENT GREG HUNTER:Twenty-four million children in America ride to and from schooleveryday on a fleet of nearly 600,000 school buses. Most are poweredby diesel fuel. And each of those children, on average, spends anestimated 180 hours every year on board one of those buses. Here's the bad news. According to a new Yale University studyby Professor John Wargo, some kids are getting high levels of dieselexhaust from their school bus. Using ultra-sensitive monitors, whichhe placed directly on school children, Wargo took readings of the airquality around the children every minute throughout the entire schoolday. So you found out exactly what they were breathing in minuteto minute?

PROFESSOR JOHN WARGO PHD, RISK ANALYSIS & ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY:Yeah, we mapped it out. Actually, every 10 seconds we took areading.

HUNTER: (VO) Wargo's readings showed spikes in the measurement of dieselexhaust at certain points of the day. His results differ from thoseof the EPA because the EPA measures air quality at fixed locationsand averages the results over a three-year period. How much higher than the government's acceptable level were youfinding routinely?

WARGO: Well, for short periods of time, we were finding levels that werefive to 10 times higher than the government standard.

HUNTER: That's a big spike.