Thursday, January 26, 2006

Vehicle emissions wh

Vehicle emissions what the Greens do not tell you Part 1


Since the state of the planet speech from the Greens I have been wondering what planet they get their resource material from. There are always a number of issues in scientific research but when someone quotes from outdated material or omits important findings from research the probability of them being just thick, moves to the question of them being politically dishonest.

Fitzsimons said this

Exhaust pollution from vehicles kills as many New Zealanders each year as car crashes do and the Government’s latest plan to deal with this problem is just not enough, the Green Party says.

“Those who die from the effects of exhaust pollution are the most vulnerable – the very old and the very young and they deserve the best protection the Government can afford them, Green Party Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons says.

“People do not have a right to kill others from air pollution just to get cheap vehicles. While it’s true that not everyone can afford newer vehicles, there is no shortage of cheap old cars in New Zealand already without bringing in more. We should be adding to the fleet at the top end, not the bottom end.

The Niwa report they are quoting from is already outdated and the Booz Allen –Leeds university one is the latest for NZ.

This however uses flawed methodology as the environmental conditions(wind and higher rainfall )and population agglomerations are not scaleable due to infinite regress problems with the instringent variables .

This is a common mistake with many researchers here, in extrapolation of data models from overseas studies to NZ and adjusting them to meet the demographics of NZ.

The EC external costs of Transport project that is always updating looks at all modes of transport.

The models incorporate the cost of maintenance ,production and disposal of equipment that brings into question the real costs of passenger trains and buses.


The methodology was applied to a variety of case studies in different countries, giving a
European-wide overview of site-specific results. The technologies assessed cover passenger and goods transport with road, rail, and waterway transport.

It can be concluded that health impacts dominate the damages quantified in this study; in
Particular, mortality due to primary (PM2.5)
Carcinogens, which were expected to play an important role due to their high specific toxicity, proved to be of much lower importance compared to the particles. The reason is, that carcinogens are only emitted in small quantities.


It was found, that the population density around a road is a key parameter for the magnitude of impacts, particularly for diesel vehicles. This effect is caused mainly by the importance of the primary particles for the total damage. Based on the case studies, three main categories of locations could be identified:
· agglomerations (areas of highest population densities over a large area) e.g. Paris: ca. 10 million people on 50 x 50 km2,
· urban areas (high population density over a large area), e.g. Amsterdam, Barnsley,
Stuttgart: ca. 2 million people on 50 x 50 km2,
· extra-urban areas (medium to low population densities).


The study that incorporated relevant epidemiological information across Europe found that health risks are only relevant to particulate emissions of 2.5m and not the secondary constituents such as SO S O3 N and NOX
Once the particulates get to such a small size they become entrapped in the terminations of the Bronchiole and can cause damage.

The pollutants have no acute morbidity and have chronic health effects.

Correlation of the studies also identified the mot at risk groups. These were road workers with exposure to products being laid. Transport workers who worked in enclosed environments with vehicles (truck loading and unloading in warehouses etc.) and vehicle maintenance workers.

If these are removed from the hospital admission surveys ,as well as others with additional causalities such as smokers ,industrial process workers,etc .
The relative risk reduces to negligible rates within normal variance of health deviation within the normal population.










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