Asheville FM News Hour – 2022 local elections interviews – city council and mayor

 

WASHINGTON, DC – October 26, 2022 – More children will be able to ride to and from school in ‘clean’ school buses because of the new federal Clean School Bus Program. Grants of $1 billion have been appropriated to almost 400 school districts spanning every state, the District of Columbia, several indigenous tribes and a few U.S. territories to purchase about 2,500 ‘clean’ school buses. Vice President Kamala Harris and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Michael Regan announced the grants on October 26^th. The EPA had 2 thousand applications requesting almost $4 billion for 12 thousand buses. The White House said that 99% of the approved applications were from school districts serving low-resource, rural or tribal students. The funds are from the bipartisan infrastructure law signed last year by President Biden which will provide for a total of $5 billion. The remaining $4 billion of funds will be appropriated over the next 4 years. These funds should jump start the electric vehicle industry for school buses and invest in the country’s economy by providing for more well-paying jobs. Most of the school buses will be electric-powered. Almost 25 million children ride in school buses every school day. Many of the buses will be delivered by the start of the 2023 school year and the remainder by the end of 2023.

Traditionally, school buses have been diesel-powered, contributing to climate change through green-house gas emissions and vehicular air pollution through toxic gas and particle emissions. The polluting school buses can adversely affect the health of its passengers. Only 1% of the nation’s 480 thousand school buses are electric so there has become a large effort by environmentalists and public health groups to replace the aging and contaminating fleet. This changeover is consistent with the Biden administration’s efforts to transition to zero-emissions vehicles to drastically reduce these noxious emissions. Clean school buses will reduce pollution near schools and neighboring communities and protect children’s health by providing a pollution-free environment for children who ride in the buses.

Molly Rauch, public health policy director for Moms Clean Air Force, says that “It doesn’t make sense to send our kids to school on buses that create brain-harming, lung-harming, cancer-causing, climate-harming pollution. Our kids, our bus drivers and our communities deserve better.”

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

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ASHEVILLE, NC – October 26, 2022 – The CDC reports that the community level for Buncombe County is low for the week ending October 24^th. All of North Carolina is low with all 100 counties at a low community level. Most of the counties in the U.S. are at a low level with less than 3% of the counties at a high level. For a community at a low community level, the CDC recommends:

• You may choose to wear a mask at any time as an additional precaution to protect yourself and others.
• If you are at high risk for severe illness, consider wearing a mask indoors in public and take additional precautions.

The Buncombe County COVID-19 metrics are on the North Carolina COVID Dashboard. Data from the week ending on October 22^nd indicate:

• There have been 75 cases per 100,000 residents in the last 7 days down 18% from the previous week.
• 67% of the total population have received their primary vaccination series. Unchanged over the past 11 weeks.
• 18% of people with their primary vaccination series have had the new bivalent booster up 13% from two weeks ago.
• The seven-day daily average of COVID-19 hospitalizations is 43 and has increased by 2 since last week, and of ICU patients is 6 and has decreased by 1 from the previous week.

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends:

• Stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.
• People with any COVID symptoms should get tested
• People who are positive for COVID-19 or do not feel well should stay home

Vaccination sites and testing sites can be located through the North Carolina and Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services.

An updated COVID-19 booster is now available for eligible persons 5 years and older. This new booster is bivalent, which means that it targets 2 versions of the COVID virus, the original virus and the new dominant BA.4 and BA.5 variants. It will replace the previous booster shot that had targeted only the original version of the virus. However, the original vaccine will still be used for persons who have not received the primary vaccination series. Eligible persons must be at least 2 months after any prior COVID-19 shots and have had the primary vaccination series. The CDC advises that people who recently had COVID consider delaying their boosters until 3 months after their symptoms started or after a positive COVID test if they were asymptomatic. Booster shots are available at the Department of Public Health Coxe Avenue vaccination clinic, pharmacies, community health centers and rural health clinics.

 

Listen to the full report below:

 

 

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

More Posts for Show: Asheville FM News Hour