Health fears from diesel engines being ignored
Source: The Guardian
As the price of oil continues to rise, low-emission diesel cars are being seen as a cheaper, greener alternative, and demand is soaring. But there are fears that the fuel's health dangers are being ignored.
Britain expects diesel emissions to grow by about 50% between 2002 and 2020, but the relentless drive away from petrol has one major downside, overlooked by the government, ignored by many environment groups and barely known by the public. A written answer last year by then transport minister Stephen Ladyman showed that diesel engines for passenger cars produce 16.9 times more particulate matter and over 83% more nitrogen oxides than the petrol equivalents, albeit with 4.3% less carbon dioxide.
Indeed, the rise of diesel engines is the principal reason why London and possibly other UK cities have breached legal air quality legislation every year since 2005. Air pollution near many of London's busiest roads averages well over twice the World Health Organisation's maximum recommended levels.
Concern centres on particulate pollution - the tiny specks of dust, ash or soot spewed out by vehicles, homes and industry. There are, says the government, more than 1,000 premature deaths a year in London from air pollution, and there is considerable evidence that particulate pollution from diesel engines is associated with death, and admissions to hospital for the treatment of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and asthma. Transport for London's consultation for the the capital's low-emission zone showed that 1,392,000 people were affected by breaches of EU legal limits for particulate matter in 2005.
"Diesel emissions from road transport are by far the biggest single cause of air quality legal breaches," says Simon Birkett, chair of the cross-party Campaign for Clean Air in London. He urges mayor Johnson and the government to take radical action to meet the demands of the new EU air quality directive, which is due to come into force very shortly and will require the UK to achieve much higher air quality standards for emissions of particulates by 2011.
"Unless the government sets, belatedly and soon, national standards for the abatement of emissions of oxides of nitrogen from older diesel vehicles of all main types, these vehicles must be banned from the most polluted parts of London if the UK is to comply with air quality laws," Birkett says. He wants to see all car advertisements show, in grams per kilometre, the emissions of the hazardous oxides of nitrogen and particulate matter, as well as carbon dioxide emissions.
There is a real danger, he says, that in the rush to achieve carbon dioxide targets, other forms of pollution that can be highly injurious to health may be ignored or compromised. "Air pollution needs to be tackled holistically, with sensible judgments being made in the inevitable trade-offs between air quality and climate change," Birkett says.
"A classic example is the latest Department for Transport's CO2 calculator, which is likely to encourage people to choose cars with diesel engines because of their small climate change advantage, even though they generate substantially more of the hazardous particulate matter and nitrogen oxides. We should question whether there is still a place for diesel engines in large cities while there is such a serious public health problem."
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