Last week, temperatures in my home state of Minnesota stayed below zero for nearly four consecutive days. Extreme cold is not particularly unusual in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but it’s not much fun to commute to work or school with air temperatures at -20ºF. As I bundled up and drove to work in the middle of the cold snap, I heard a radio news story that one large suburban school system had closed, saying their school buses couldn’t run “because the biodiesel had turned to gel.”

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Hybrid cars and all-electric vehicles are the solution of the future, but right now they are beyond reach for many of us.  Let’s read on to check out some no-cost and low-cost ways you can help reduce the impact of idling on children’s health.

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Unfortunately, most buses are powered by diesel engines that actually pollute the air inside the bus. Studies show the pollution gets trapped inside the bus, where kids breathe it in.

Dr. John Balbus, EDF’s chief health scientist, answers common questions about school bus pollution and your child’s health.

Q:  I don’t see billowing clouds of black smoke behind the school bus. Does that mean the bus exhaust is clean?

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Even clean-looking exhaust from tailpipes, and from the engine itself, can contain small particles and other toxic pollutants that can get inside the school bus, and in children’s lungs.

Q: How does diesel pollution get inside a school bus?

Diesel pollution can enter a school bus from both the tailpipe and the engine. In school buses, the engine is in the front, right near the door, so every time the door opens, engine and tailpipe exhaust get sucked inside.

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Though lawmakers passed a measure in 2005 to replace diesel school bus engines nationwide, the results have been paltry. Thus school children nationwide are still traveling on antiquated buses that produce pollutants some believe to be five times dirtier than outside air.

The issue: money. State officials are struggling to budget in the clean school bus initiatives, while Congress has yet to deliver the $1 billion it promised over five years to assist states in cleaning up diesel-powered vehicles – which includes school buses.

“I think at one time or another all our kids are going to be on a bus breathing that harmful air, and that should bother everybody,” said Karen Slay, a Lubbock, Texas, mother of four boys who have ridden buses. “In the big scheme of things, it doesn’t seem to be that expensive, to me, to retrofit these.”

High concentrations of diesel emissions (called particulates) are the cause of minor concerns like headaches, wheezing and dizziness. But recent studies indicate that particulates are also linked to asthma and lung cancer.

Filters of two different designs can reduce emissions on older buses: diesel particulate filters, installed in place of mufflers for $700 a piece, reduce tailpipe emissions by a whopping 85 percent; closed crankcase filtration systems, placed under the hood but with a staggering $7,500 price tag, reduce particulates by nearly 90 percent. Buses can be fitted with one or both types of filters.

An estimated 390,000 diesel school buses are on the road in the U.S., according to the EPA. Most newer buses were manufactured to meet stricter emissions guidelines and do not need filters. But about one-third of the nation’s diesel school bus fleet, or more than 100,000 buses, were manufactured before 1990 and are big polluters, according to the EPA.

California is leading the charge on this issue, as voters in that state last year approved $200 million to refurbish its school bus fleet.