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Just two hours of exposure to diesel exhaust is enough to cause significant damage to the human body, a new UBC study concludes. The study, led by Dr. Chris Carlsten, looked at how pollution particles affect the way genes are expressed in the body. Sixteen non-smoking adult volunteers with asthma were put in an enclosed booth about the size of a standard bathroom, and made to breathe diluted and aged exhaust fumes equal to the air quality along a Beijing highway, or a busy port in British Columbia. Carlsten says the impact of the pollution "exceeded our expectations." "Quite rapidly,...

Researchers in the US have shown that perovskites - a class of mixed oxide minerals - can perform as well as platinum in certain types of catalytic converter for removing pollutants from diesel exhaust. The finding could eventually result in cheaper, more robust catalytic converters for diesel engines that do not rely on expensive and scarce platinum group metals. Vehicle exhaust is a major polluter One of the main pollutants that needs to be removed from vehicle exhaust is a mixture of NO and NO2, referred to as NOx, which can be rendered harmless by reducing the gases to nitrogen. But...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 — Diesel exhausts from large trucks and other sources probably cause lung cancer, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded Tuesday in a report that buttresses a push to reduce truck emissions through stricter requirements for cleaner diesel fuel.