Thousands of Bridgeport students will be breathing a little easier on the ride to school this fall.

Environmental leaders, city and school officials are retrofitting Bridgeport's 111 diesel school buses with special filters. The equipment is expected to cut emissions by 90 percent. Pediatricians say environmental pollution is a key factor in childhood asthma. They also say some 6,000 Connecticut kids are taken to the hospital every year for asthma symptoms.

The city of Bridgeport will use more than $500,000 won in a state settlement with a power plant to make the changes.