Diesel Fumes
The Grim Reaper
No. 8 in a never-ending series. Winter 1993
What depresses me about writing this column is that there never seems to be an end to the awfulness of cars. You'd have thought that eventually I'd run out of new material and would write myself out of a job. Then the editor could replace this morbid column with something altogether more entertaining like reviews of the latest self-adjusting seatpin or cookery for cycle tourists.
However, each month new research is published that reveals more horrors about the infernal combustion engine, and this month is no exception.
In the last couple of years, car manufacturers have acknowledged some of the pollution problems they create and put their money into the illusory technical fix. First it was lead-free petrol, which turned out to be more carcinogenic than its leaded counterpart. Then there were catalytic converters which have proved to be useless on the majority of urban journeys because the engine is still cold.
Now we have diesel cars. In 1990 they comprised 5% of the new oar market. That's now risen to 20%. Despite their being marketed as greener than petrol cars we should be very worried by this trend. The car manufacturers seeing a sudden collapse in the car market in the last two years, heavily promoted diesel cars, which are cheaper to run, in an attempt to expand their market share, and maintain their profits. They dishonestly promoted them as being more environmentally friendly than petrol cars. They do use less fuel and produce less carbon monoxide and up to 20% less carbon dioxide than petrol cars with cats. However, this saving is heavily outweighed by the increases in other filth expelled by diesels.
Recent research by the Government's Quality of Urban Air Review Group
found that diesels produce twice as much nitrogen oxide as petrol cars with cats. Nitrogen oxide contributes to acid rain, photochemical smog, low level ozone, and irritates your lungs and is one of the main causes of asthma. If that wasn't bad enough, it is now official that diesels produce large amounts of carcinogenic sooty black smoke end oily particulates which contain all sorts of nasties such as benzopyrene which are inhaled deep into your lung and then cause lung cancer. Petrol engines are free of these dangerous sooty hydrocarbons.
Choose your poison!
The Grim Reaper
