LOS ANGELES -- The Montebello Unified School District will now utilize a newly developed technology from Krupp-Bilstein of America which reduces the toxicity of diesel engine exhaust. The Bilstein Industrial Engine Flush System circulates environmentally safe detergents within the fuel injection system, oil passages, oil galleys, and crank case area of a diesel engine, and through a series of "wash, soak, and rinse" cycles and ultra-fine filtration, evacuates sludge, particular matter, contaimants, and soot. These foregn elements can burn off during combustion, fume out the exhaust, and circulate into the air.

Soot was determined to be a cancer-causing carcinogen by the California Air Resources Board in 1998. The California Highway Patrol was ordered to issue citations to heavily polluting diesel vehicles by spot-checking vehicle opacity. Opacity is the percentage of light obstructed from passage through an exhaust smoke plume as measured by a test developed by the Socity of Automotive Engineers.

School buses, along with other buses in public transit services, have not been heavily fined by the CHP. It was determined that of all diesel vehicles, buses of all types contribute less than two percent of soot and other pollutants into the atmosphere.

To help kick off the program, State Farm Insurance Company has made arrangements with the MotorLife Corp., the company supplying the school district with the system, to supply the equipment at no charge to the school district.