They will earn you a good living too.
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)
They will earn you a good living too.
I thought I miught point out that the technology now exists to install a filter that removes 99% of all particles from diesel exhaust.
A great number of cities in Germany have installed them on public transport and the difference it makes is signficant.
The cost is about the same as a catalytic converter.
Indeed I am sure there are health benefits too, but it just plain smells and looks better. Not to mention the fact that buildings do not get as dirty.
In other words, there is already a viable solution to this non-problem.
Oh, how I long for the good old days at the first of the 20th Century, before diesel fuel, when the life expectancy was something around forty-five years of age.
I've got an 86 F-250 with 6.9 I think, 96 F-250 with the Power Stroke and a 99 F-350 Dump, the best gas milage is the 86 about 20 mpg if you keep it under 55. The 96 gets about 15-18 and the 99 F-350 gets about 12 but it is alot heavier. Now I will say that cars with diesels get much better milage and your F-250 is probably the new version and I hear they get better milage than any of mine.
It's Bush's fault because this Republican Congress and Republican President have introduced clean diesel technology, that will reduce diesel pollutants by 90%. Both over-the-road and non-road diesels are covered. Now he gets banged for not having it implemented in a day.
Much discussion of the output of the study. Wonder what the methods and assumptions are.
Mark for later.
I talked to an "environmentally concious" lefty (a professor of photo-journalism, go figure) about this just the other day.
He knew many of the eco-culture talking points, but he did not know about the greater thermal efficiency of diesel engines. He seemed amazed and doubtful at this; that is, he was entirely ignorant of a highly relevant fact that has been common knowledge among shade-tree mechanics and garage putterers, let alone engineers, for a hundred years.
He also thought that diesels had been exempt from the original emission control standards of the 1970s, when in fact they met the standards without modification.
BTT!!!!!
They'd just have to let in more illegals to clean up the mess since US citizens refuse to shovel s***.
BTTT!!!!!!
"The reason they'd like to ban diesel fuel is because they recognize it's importance to our economy. The same can be said for brain tumor causing cell phones, oil, gasoline, herbicides, fried potatoes, soft drinks, etc."
Bullseye. This is an ideal opportunity for the eco-genocide lobby to exploit public ignorance and do untold economic damage. They can't resist that kind of power. It is who and what they are.
I once raised caterpillars for moth and butterfly specimens. A tulip poplar grew next to a bus stop. The caterpillars would eat the diesel coated leaves but they all invariably died. Leaves from a tulip poplar across the street did not kill the caterpillars. I do think diesel exhaust is as bad as and worse than gasoline exhaust even before emission controls. The particulate matter is also very difficult for the lungs to deal with. One of the first rate triggers for threatening asthmatic episodes is when omne is caught in a blast of black diesel fumes and smut. This is a classic broncho constrictor. I believe diesel fumes are as dangerous as half the homicidal drivers of the "big rigs".
NGO eco-fascist to starving third world villagers:
"Sorry about the food shipments. The teamsters were hungry too, and they ate our oxen, damned thieving locals. There was no other way to get the stuff here without nasty diesel trucks and boats. We have to protect you health, you know. At least you don't have to put up with that smell while you hunt for rats to feed your children."
Every "big rig" that rumbles down a highway does more damage than 30,000 cars .... ( go ahead, hit me with the trucking racket's tax lies and then compare it to what 30,000 cars pay to do no damage) and the 30,000 cars pay for the rig's road damage. The paying cars are then pushed and bullied all over the road resulting in myriad car occupant deaths always surrounded by a mele' of radio-summoned truckers all chortling " it weren't his fault, it weren't nothing else he could do but run 'em over." Yes, diesel, diesel fumes. diesel vehicles , diesel pollution, diesel subsidies and many diesel drivers are all subsidized killers.
Gee, we have your word for all that, it must be true.
Obviously, the trucking industry needs to step up its donations to GreenPeace and the Sierra Club.
Hey, it worked for the auto manufacturers.
This is only a pipsqueak 4-wheeler but the technology could obviously be adapted to power buses, trucks, tractors; heck, even submarines. ;)
It would take but a few moments estimation to arrive at a good guess of the mass of horse manure to replace the automobile.
BAN DIESAL!
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