It's VIN Diesel.
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)
It's VIN Diesel.
Heck yes. At least it's a break from SUV's killin people.
What is frightening about it all to me is that the sheeple continue to graze on this crap.
What size tires would you need to haul a reactor around at speed?
"The reason they'd like to ban diesel fuel is because they recognize it's importance to our economy."
Don't forget the direct assault against our ability to defend ourselves. Without diesel engines, our military would be severly hampered.
The mock-up had 15x7 pickup tires.
The reactor planned for this only weighed a few hundred pounds, but the proportions of the vehicle give a good idea of the distribution.
Cite these advantages when pitching it to eco-concious buyers:
It’s quiet, smooth, and runs fifty thousand miles on one fill-up.
Homicidal right-wing SUV drivers would think twice about t-boning it, especially if they live close by.
Best of all, it will not emit any planet-destroying CO2 to destroy ozone and fluffy bunnies and cause global warming(unless it melts down and the tires/occupants catch fire).
Beat the heat with the cool blue glow of uranium!
I'll keep my dang gas guzzling Ford Pickup. Actually my Ranger gets 20 mpg.
look it up for yourself one-liner....posters like you add so much to the knowledge base here
After working around continuaously Jet A fumes at Teterboro airport one hot NJ summer, I can't stand the smell of diesel anymore either. My only wish is that diesel manufacturers would do something about the godawful stench.
If it continues at $2.30 a gallon, when gasoline is almost .35 cents cheaper, I'm gonna kill somebody!
Excuse me, Mr. authority. You have made these claims, it is up to you to support them. Your word alone is worthless and it is your unsupported claims that add nothing to the knowledge base. That is how logic works, (just thought you might want to know).
shove it and your snotty attitude...I'm glad you do not live near me....tunnel vision
"when in fact diesel met the standards without modification."
now that just depends on what you're measuring doesn't it?
Oranges escape the red test of apples too! Apples versus oranges is the same as diesel versus gasoline.
I am not anti-any fuel....I just get sick hearing half truths touted to bolster an agenda and a mind-set whether it is conservative or liberal...
Stop the attacks by the wacko, extreme left-wing, enviro-nazis terrorist's on our Freedoms!
Freedom Is Worth Fighting For!
Molon Labe!
Yes, that is very frightening.
Roger that TC ~ how're we doin' Big Guy?
What was being measured were the emissions specified by the legally mandated standards to which I referred; CO, hydrocarbons, and oxides of nitrogen.
What other standard was there?
Name it, and shove your ignorant lies where they belong, loser. You SHOULD be glad you don't live near me.
Rejecting your authority is tunnel-vision? George Orwell wrote about people like you.
When I read this about the diesel smoke, I thought about you.
If there's anyone who knows about diesel smoke it's truck drivers, and I'll bet they weren't even considered in this "study".
You are the stupidest person I have ever encountered on FR...you are an absolute freak....
try particulates for one if you can spell it idiot
Indeed
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