Women in Action
The White Hanky Test
We are working hard to make our communities healthier
From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
By Teresa Heinz, the chairman of The Heinz Endowments and the Heinz Family Philanthropies (www.heinz.org).
...
On one of my trips home to Pittsburgh several years ago, I saw that there had been a great deal of news coverage given to a small event that took place in a suburban school parking lot.
The participants performed an unsophisticated scientific experiment known as the "white hanky" test. A senior scientist with a local environmental group and the owner of a school bus company held a white handkerchief against the tailpipe of a 6-year-old bus with its engine in idle. Within seconds, the diesel exhaust turned the handkerchief black.
The men then moved to the tailpipe of another bus that had been retrofitted to filter most of the pollutants -- which are linked to a range of serious health problems from asthma to cancer -- and the handkerchief remained white.
Students clapped, cameras clicked and Plum School District officials announced the receipt of a federal grant that would allow them to buy filters for the district's older buses.
For two young women who head local environmental nonprofits and who helped plan that event, the actions of Plum officials and similar efforts in three other school districts were commendable but fell far short of a comprehensive response to Western Pennsylvania's serious diesel-emission problem.
Inspired by last year's Women's Health & Environment Conference and the Rachel Carson Centennial Birthday celebration that followed, Kathy Lawson, Western Pennsylvania director of Clean Water Action, and Rachel Filippini, the executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution, partnered with the Pittsburgh Public Schools and bus company owners to create the Healthy School Bus Fund.
The project's first-stage goal is to eliminate diesel pollution from the district's 350-bus fleet. Eventually, the two women want to package the novel process and take it to the other school districts in Allegheny County.
Rachel and Kathy have been persistent and convincing, with the result that the first 20 retrofitted school buses in Pittsburgh are scheduled to make their rounds by the end of October. These two were among the 2,000 women who took to heart two key messages from last year's conference.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08268/914415-109.stm
We are working hard to make our communities healthier
From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
By Teresa Heinz, the chairman of The Heinz Endowments and the Heinz Family Philanthropies (www.heinz.org).
...
On one of my trips home to Pittsburgh several years ago, I saw that there had been a great deal of news coverage given to a small event that took place in a suburban school parking lot.
The participants performed an unsophisticated scientific experiment known as the "white hanky" test. A senior scientist with a local environmental group and the owner of a school bus company held a white handkerchief against the tailpipe of a 6-year-old bus with its engine in idle. Within seconds, the diesel exhaust turned the handkerchief black.
The men then moved to the tailpipe of another bus that had been retrofitted to filter most of the pollutants -- which are linked to a range of serious health problems from asthma to cancer -- and the handkerchief remained white.
Students clapped, cameras clicked and Plum School District officials announced the receipt of a federal grant that would allow them to buy filters for the district's older buses.
For two young women who head local environmental nonprofits and who helped plan that event, the actions of Plum officials and similar efforts in three other school districts were commendable but fell far short of a comprehensive response to Western Pennsylvania's serious diesel-emission problem.
Inspired by last year's Women's Health & Environment Conference and the Rachel Carson Centennial Birthday celebration that followed, Kathy Lawson, Western Pennsylvania director of Clean Water Action, and Rachel Filippini, the executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution, partnered with the Pittsburgh Public Schools and bus company owners to create the Healthy School Bus Fund.
The project's first-stage goal is to eliminate diesel pollution from the district's 350-bus fleet. Eventually, the two women want to package the novel process and take it to the other school districts in Allegheny County.
Rachel and Kathy have been persistent and convincing, with the result that the first 20 retrofitted school buses in Pittsburgh are scheduled to make their rounds by the end of October. These two were among the 2,000 women who took to heart two key messages from last year's conference.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08268/914415-109.stm
Added on September 26, 2008 by formasspta
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