Car exhaust now among top causes of death

[CHamilton]

The World's Fastest-Growing Cause of Death Is Pollution from Car Exhaust

Cars, once again, are killing us. They're killing us in crashes and accidents, yes, and they're encouraging us to grow obese and then killing us a little more slowly. But, more than ever before, they're killing us with their pollution.
Particulate air pollution, along with obesity, is now the two fastest-growing causes of death in the world, according to a new study published in the Lancet.

The study found that in 2010, 3.2 million people died prematurely from the air pollution–particularly the sooty kind that spews from the exhaust pipes of cars and trucks. And of those untimely deaths, 2.1 million were in Asia, where a boom in car use has choked the streets of India and China's fast-expanding cities with smog.

The Guardian reports that "Worldwide, a record 3.2m people a year died from air pollution in 2010, compared with 800,000 in 2000. It now ranks for the first time in the world's top 10 list of killer diseases, says the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study."

 

[George Harris]

Yes, something ought to be done to have cleaner burning automobiles in much of the world. On the other hand, most of the countries suffering from dirty exhaust have a lot of other issues as well. To single out this one is for many of these places an issue of misplaced priorities.

 

[jis]

George is exactly right. Ask yourself how many are dying of malnutrition in those countries. And then compare that number with anything that cars are doing to anyone. Indeed in many case it would be hard to tell whether it was the malnutrition or the car exhaust that got someone.

 

[Anderson]

Well, and it's not just cars causing this particular issue, either. A lot of those countries have bad air quality issues from their factories as well. Likewise, at least in China, they're throwing down mass transit lines at a truly astounding pace that the interurbans of the 1900s would have been hard-pressed to match. As much as China has issues out the wazoo, they're putting in thousands of miles of new lines, ranging from subways to commuter rail and so forth. Looking at the (quite impressive) networks in Shanghai and Beijing, almost all of that network has gone in during the last decade or so, and a large portion of that has gone in during the last 5 years.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I know that some of these countries have bigger issues to deal with, but the US should be adding more transit to reduce car use. If rail is too much to ask for, at least I would like to see improved bus service.

 

[George Harris]

I think this is the statement that I (and Jis) are taking issue with.

And of those untimely deaths, 2.1 million were in Asia, where a boom in car use has choked the streets of India and China's fast-expanding cities with smog.

Given the magnitude of the basic problems with nutrition, availability of health care and other basic services, workplace safety, and on and on, to zero in on automobile pollution shows a crushing ignorance of the totality of the situation. Yes, the problems are more obvious in India than in China, but then India is a democracy so they are not near as able to sweep their problems under the rug as is China.

 

[jis]

Again I agree with what George says above.

at least in China, they're throwing down mass transit lines at a truly astounding pace that the interurbans of the 1900s would have been hard-pressed to match. As much as China has issues out the wazoo, they're putting in thousands of miles of new lines, ranging from subways to commuter rail and so forth. Looking at the (quite impressive) networks in Shanghai and Beijing, almost all of that network has gone in during the last decade or so, and a large portion of that has gone in during the last 5 years.

This is true in India too. Actually the more common criticism in India is that it is not building enough roads!

At least around Calcutta, areas that were connected at best by unpaved roads two or three decades back now often have a nice electrified Broad Gauge suburban rail connection. Indeed for an Indian politician being able to claim that they brought a new rail connection or even an enhanced service on an existing rail connection is about as big a winning position as can be. That is why every politician who manages to become the Railway Minister, immediately goes to work on allocating funds for 1500 new rail lines and trains whether it otherwise makes any sense or not, a disproportionate proportion of them targeted for their own district and state.

The other thing to note is that the particulate problem is not really primarily a car problem at least in rural areas. it is the proverbial "Angethi" problem. "Angethis" are these little bucket like things in which either untreated coal, charcoal or dried cowdung puckies are burned for heat, cooking etc. They produce a particularly dirty smoke. It is a sight to behold what a million of these can do, including choking up said guilty car's own carburetor, and gunk up fuel injectors. So people who claim that cars are the main culprit are somewhat clueless IMHO.

Actually no new car in India is below Euro III standard, and newer ones are at Euro IV, which is pretty much at part with the current US standards. The pre-existing old cars continue to be a problem, but they routinely get deregistered and removed from the pool by buyouts etc. at considerable political risk. So it is not like they are doing nothing about it either. The other popular thing is to convert them to use LPG which reduces particulate emission dramatically.