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Cars, Air Pollution and Health Cars have two opposite personalities. One is friendly and attractive the other is destructive and can be lethal. The desire to own a car is linked to pleasure, sexuality, convenience and freedom. Men lust for attractive, prestigious cars they way they lust for women and women desire men with attractive, prestigious cars. Car manufacturers have long used attractive, lightly clad women to advertise their latest auto designs. Men are also interested in power, performance and want to know something about the engine, although modern engines are sufficiently complex to discourage even the professional mechanic. Some of the new engine complexity involves emission control systems that require electronic monitoring and adjustment of engine performance under different operating conditions. Several devices are added to the engine to handle air flow in, fuel delivery and exhaust out. Computers have been added to monitor and control engine performance. Most car engines designed after 1996 have a standard port that allows a diagnostic computer access to information about engine performance. Driving a car is the most polluting act an average citizen commits. Emissions from passenger vehicles are increasing in Canada and the US despite attempts to make engines more fuel efficient and despite the addition of antipollution devices. The two main reasons are: 1. vehicle use has increased; 2. cars are getting bigger and pick-up trucks, vans and sports vehicles are often replacing smaller, lighter passenger cars. The average new vehicle in 2003 consumed more fuel that its counterpart in 1988. In the USA in 1987 cars averaged 25.9 miles to the gallon. Fuel efficiency dropped to 24.6 miles/gallon by 1998 and is dropping further as larger vehicles replace smaller ones. Despite scientific evidence of climate change, governments in most affluent countries have avoided their responsibility to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The USA is the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases worldwide. US emissions have increased to 7 billion tones of CO2 in 2004, 16 % higher than emissions in the late 90's. The UK has done better reducing their emissions to about 0.6 billion tons, 14% below 1990 levels. Exhaust from all combustion engines combine to produce local adverse effects on the health of car users and all innocent bystanders. Cities have become islands of toxic chemicals from the unrestrained use of vehicles burning fossil fuels. Cars are noisy, ugly, often dangerous and dominate the experience of modern living. We are now used to the carnage on roads and highways- attempts to reduce death and disability from our motorized containers have not substantially altered the negative impact on society. The adverse health effects of car exhaust are pervasive and difficult to measure. Television Ads for sports and recreation vehicles show solitary, impeccable machines in wilderness locations. One TV ad shows a couple making a mad dash to escape the city core in their expensive, luxury upholstered clone of the land-rover. The ads are selling a fantasy of wilderness, fresh air and escape. Is the consumer is completely deluded? These vehicles are mostly found in suburban driveways and in the traffic jams of polluted cities. They have nowhere to go to escape the environmental degradation they help to create. 4x4 drives and large tires are rarely useful and are not suited to highway driving, You see these machines, submerged in suburban driveways by the floods they helped to create. Combustion engines contribute to greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere and are responsible for climate changes. A sane, sober revision of vehicle use is long overdue. While ethanol has been championed as an alternative to petroleum fuels, it mainly helps to reduce dependency on oil producing countries. When ethanol is made from corn, more than 75% of its energy value must be spent on its production. Burning ethanol still produces carbon dioxide. Climate change with extreme weather events threatens corn production in the US, where for decades corn surplus were common. The new competition between hastily constructed ethanol plants and food production suddenly in 2008 became an international issue. What Can I do? Drive Less Both local and global pollution would be reduced if each car-driving person pledged to use their car 30% less starting immediately. Cities can reduce vehicular traffic by 30% over the next 3 to 5 years. This is a responsible, individual contribution to a global problem. The rising cost of crude oil in 2008 has quickly altered driving habits and big auto companies are closing plants that produced SUVs and pick up trucks. If you are interested in longer term human survival, then the high cost of oil is a real benefit. With or without high fuel prices, each person can drive less and resist the temptation to buy larger, heavier cars, vans, trucks and sports vehicles. If you really need a 4x4 to drive off-roads in wilderness settings, you need a rugged clunker that's already got scratches, dents and mud on the tires. Carry a shovel, axe, chain saw, and a come-along in the back. If you can afford it, add a heavy duty winch up front. Stay off highways. See Disease Effects, Car Exhaust Solution: Reduce Air Pollution; change motor vehicle use:
The use of cars must be re-defined. Car use has to be considered a privilege, not a
right. The cost of environmental damage
and reclamation has to be added to the cost of owning and
operating a car.
Vehicle use should no longer be subsidized.
Reduce number of Vehicles - Urban areas need to set vehicular quotas and
issue permits to
limit the number of vehicles to control regional traffic congestion and air pollution. Recreational driving can be
reduced immediately. Car owners need to pay for
miles driven and fuel burned on an escalating scale. Each person
can have a "free driving" allotment per year and
pay increasing insurance and/or taxes on fuel
consumption beyond this limit. The most accessible measure of air pollution
contribution is the amount of fossil fuel burned. Governments can encourage the reduction of vehicular use by:
Governments can use a combination of
Long term solutions require that vehicles use less polluting
energy sources such biofuels, propane, natural gas
and hydrogen. I am sorry to say that the marketing of "green solutions" to
global warming is becoming yet another scam. One problem is that producing
alternate fuels and hybrid cars often requires CO2 emissions that offset or
cancel the benefits of improve vehicular design.
When ethanol is made from corn, more than 75% of its
energy value is spent on its production. Burning ethanol still produces carbon
dioxide.
If an electric car is recharged with
electricity produced by a fossil fuel burning generator, there may be no net benefit
to the atmosphere. A real solution would reduce air pollution beginning at
source materials and would continue through the use cycle of the vehicle. A gas-inefficient clunker driven twice a week for 20 km is a better choice than a
new expensive hybrid car driven everyday for 100 Km. No solution is better than
reduced vehicle use. Search The Alpha Online Library of Medical and Health Information....
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