Posted on 02/23/2005 2:27:07 PM PST by pabianice
By Jon Brodkin / Daily News Staff Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Diesel pollution is responsible for more deaths than drunk drivers and homicides, according to a new study that estimates how many premature deaths, asthma attacks and heart attacks are caused by diesel pollution in every U.S. county.
Nationwide, diesel pollution causes 21,000 premature deaths each year, including 475 in Massachusetts and 81 in Middlesex County, robbing those who die of an average of 14 years of their lives, according to the report by the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force. Residents in nearby Suffolk County suffer the third highest risk of exposure to diesel pollution in the nation, researchers found.
The numbers point to a failure of New England states to curb emissions, said Michael Stoddard, an attorney for Environment Northeast, a group that distributed the new report in New England.
"No state in New England currently has a systematic plan in place to address this problem," Stoddard, director of ENE's New England Diesel Initiative, said yesterday. "We have legislation about power plants. We have legislation about drunk drivers. We have legislation against firearm violations. Here's something that's in the same class in terms of impact."
To determine diesel pollution's health effects in each U.S. county, the Clean Air Task Force said it employed methodology the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses to assess the health benefits of new rules. The group also used the EPA's county-by-county estimates of diesel emissions.
The report compares the estimated 21,000 diesel pollution deaths with the 17,000 annual deaths caused by drunk driving and the nation's 20,000 annual homicides.
The analysis concludes diesel pollution has widespread impacts in Massachusetts, including 727 nonfatal heart attacks per year, 9,925 asthma attacks, 43 cancer deaths, 289 cases of chronic bronchitis and 61,842 lost days of work.
The effects include 43 premature deaths in Norfolk County, which includes Franklin, Bellingham, Millis and Wellesley, and 23 premature deaths in Worcester County, which includes Milford, Upton and Uxbridge.
The EPA has issued regulations requiring large reductions in diesel vehicle emissions beginning in 2007, the report said, but the new rules will not affect trucks and buses that are already on the road and will remain in use for an average of nearly 30 years.
The EPA's new rules will save lives, but an extra 100,000 premature deaths could be avoided between now and 2030 if the country reduced diesel emissions 85 percent by 2020, the report stated.
Massachusetts began banning sales of diesel cars for model year 2004, but the ban does not apply to commercial vehicles.
"Your delivery vans, your 18-wheelers, your dump truck, your school bus, are not affected by the (new) standards," said Jeremy Marin, a Sierra Club conservation organizer based in Boston.
Stoddard said replacing diesel vehicles, like school buses and garbage trucks, or retrofitting them with pollution controls, can be done on a municipal level, but ultimately state and federal help is needed to make changes on a grand scale.
But the state likely does not have enough money to institute new spending programs aimed at cutting diesel emissions, said state Rep. Peter Koutoujian, D-Waltham, chairman of the Committee on Public Health.
"We're still looking at a billion-dollar shortfall," Koutoujian said. "I'm assuming that Ways and Means is figuring out where to cut least, more than where to add monies."
The state Department of Environmental Protection considers itself a "leader" in curbing diesel pollution, said Ed Coletta, a DEP spokesman. The state has adopted the strict California emissions standards, begun inspection and maintenance for heavy-duty diesel vehicles and retrofit MBTA vehicles and equipment used in the Big Dig with pollution controls, he said.
But many think more should be done, including Dr. Stuart Rhein, a Framingham allergy, asthma and immunology doctor who is concerned about the health impacts pollution has on his asthma patients.
"The technology is there (to control emissions)," he said, "and when you look at the expense, both in the health bill from people who have chronic illnesses...not to mention the cost of lives, I think it's clear it's worth putting the money into filtering this and preventing it before it gets to that point."
Deadly diesel fumes
Diesel fumes are responsible for more premature deaths each year than drunken driving and homicides, according to a new report.
The estimated annual death toll is 21,000 nationwide and 475 in Massachusetts, costing people an average of 14 years of their lives. Many more suffer asthma attacks, heart attacks and other health problems caused by diesel pollution.
Here's a look at diesel's impact in several local counties:
Middlesex: 81 annual deaths, 144 non-fatal heart attacks, 1,834 asthma attacks, 11,486 lost days of work.
Norfolk: 43 deaths, 73 non-fatal heart attacks, 849 asthma attacks, 5,139 lost days of work.
Worcester: 23 deaths, 35 non-fatal heart attacks, 445 asthma attacks, 2,604 lost days of work.
SOURCE: "Diesel and Health in America: The Lingering Threat," a report by the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force.
( Jon Brodkin can be reached at 508-626-4424 or jbrodkin@cnc.com. )
(Metrowest Boston voted for Kerry 57 - 41)
I love watching the narcissistic Californian tourists jogging down the sidewalks along Route 66 with the 18 wheelers roaring through their gears 6 feet away from them. I think to myself "These are the folks who move here and vote to make it illegal for me to smoke a cigarette in a bar." Serve you right you self-righteous sons-of-b**ch's!
Nationwide, diesel pollution causes 21,000 premature deaths each year, including 475 in Massachusetts and 81 in Middlesex County, robbing those who die of an average of 14 years of their lives !!!!!!!
Having been born and raised in Massachusetts, I say this is a small price to pay to get out of there.
Where's the "study" that proved that being a conservative reduces your life span to 45 years?
It's got to be out there somewhere, I just can't find it yet.
That would be priceless, wouldn't it????????
ROFL!!!!!!!
I believe it. I know a person who lost his driver's license over a DUI while he was riding a bicylce and another guy that was riding his lawn mower.
I think when they finally reqrote the Delaware DUI law, to avoid the bicylce situation, they worded so that yu couldn't get a DUI on a horse anymore either.
I hear you.
A similar article, taken from the same "study" (and I use that term lightly) was in the Delaware paper this morning bemoaning the fact that one of little DE's 3 counties ranks in the top 50........I don't understand that.
the entire reason they banned smoking indoors everywhere but private homes was to get rid of the cancer threat in Delaware..........scratching head again time.
Somebody made it up so they could 'study' it - PUKES !!
Not sure how I got it on your ping list but please remove me.
All four of my kids have them, and rave about them. The future belongs to diesel, and Hades belongs to the environmentalists.
Hey, you bin kicked off my ping list! ;o)
ROFLMAO and you owe me a beer for the one I spilled!
thanks a mil, FReegards
The only way these socialist control freaks are going to be happy is if we all live in communal caves, naked, eating the tree bark and grass which they deem to be appropriate.
21,000 died from diesel pollution, 475 in Massachusetts! OK, who were they? Lets here the names.
You gonna tell PRB about this???
my stomach is turning as I read this post. I think it is high time for a cultural revolution in America... The Left's days are numbered they just don't know it. Gerogia is trying to ban pitbulls. damn it I am going to burst this $%^$%%&$ libs!!
I don't know about the claims in this article, but I have been very sensitive to diesel fumes since I was a little kid. It has always made me sick to my stomach and given me a head ache. I do have asthma, but I can't blame that on any one particular thing.
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