May 30, 2023 | Originally published in AL.com
By: George Crawford, M.D.
Remember the school bus you rode as a kid? As soon as it took off, a large cloud of black smoke would billow from the tailpipe. The noxious fumes leaked in through the windows, filling the bus with diesel exhaust.
There is a mountain of data that show the harmful long-term health effects of that exhaust. And yet, in Alabama our children are still riding the same kind of dirty, diesel-powered buses we rode as kids. We have the ability to do better, because we know more about the health effects of diesel than our parents did.
We’ve known for 20 years that diesel exhaust contains pollutants that are linked to asthma and other respiratory problems as well as cancer. Newer research suggests that exhaust can harm the brain and affect learning…READ THE FULL ARTICLE>
Dr. George Crawford MD is the founder and lead surgeon at The Crawford Clinic in Anniston, Alabama. In addition to running his multi-specialty clinic, Dr. Crawford sits on the board of trustees of the North East Regional Medical Center. He is a 2023 Climate Health Equity Fellow through the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health.