Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 16 May 2017

Global tailpipe tests vastly underestimate diesel pollution

SETH BORENSTEIN dia, 9,300; and the United
AP Science Writer States, 1,100.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pol- In Europe, new truck regu-
lution from diesel trucks, lations are working and
buses and cars globally much of the excess pollu-
is more than 50 percent tion is coming from cars,
higher than levels shown said study co-author Ray
in government lab tests, a Minjares of the clean trans-
new study says. portation group.
That extra pollution trans- Study authors and outside
lated to another 38,000 experts said the solution
deaths from soot and smog to the problem is stronger
in 2015, the researchers es- enforcement, regulations
timated. and testing.
The work published Mon- “I do not find these results
day in the journal Na- surprising, but they are sig-
ture was a follow-up to the nificant because the ex-
testing that uncovered the tent of the problem has
Volkswagen diesel emis- been underappreciated,
sions cheating scandal. and it’s one that too many
Researchers compared policymakers prefer to
the amount of key pollut- sweep under the rug,” Uni-
ants coming out of diesel versity of Michigan Energy
tailpipes on the road in 10 Institute’s John DeCicco
countries and the Euro- In this Sept. 30, 2015, file photo, a 2013 Volkswagen Passat with a diesel engine is evaluated at the said in an email. “So most
emissions test lab in El Monte, Calif.
pean Union to the results Associated Press of what is going on is not
of government lab tests for cheating but rather inade-
nitrogen oxides. Experts and the research- at the International Institute Other research connects quate testing and enforce-
They calculated that 5 mil- ers don’t accuse car and for Applied System Analysis soot and smog to heart ment.”
lion more tons (4.6 metric truck makers of cheating, in Austria who wasn’t part and lung diseases, with Allen Schaeffer, executive
tons) was being spewed but say testing is not simu- of the study. pollution killing more than director of the U.S. industry
than the lab-based 9. 4 mil- lating real-world condi- The researchers included a 4 million people every year group Diesel Technology
lion tons (8.5 million metric tions. team from the International around the world, said lead Forum, said it’s impossible
tons). Governments rou- “The paper shows how Council on Clean Transpor- author Susan Anenberg, a to design a lab test that
tinely test new vehicles to much human failure costs,” tation, a nonprofit research researcher at Environmen- could cover all real-world
make sure they meet pol- said Jens Borken-Kleefeld, and advocacy group, that tal Health Analytics and a driving possibilities but in-
lution limits. a transportation scientist arranged the testing that former U.S. government sci- dustry officials and regula-
first showed VW diesel cars entist. tors are working on it.
were rigged to cheat on The researchers calculat- “It’s important to under-
emissions tests. ed that the extra nitrogen stand that diesel has been
They used previously pub- oxides were responsible a technology of continu-
lished tests of pollutants for about 31,400 deaths in ous improvement, mean-
coming from thousands 2015 because of tiny soot ing that today’s genera-
of vehicles, all models, to particles in the air and tion of new diesel technol-
calculate the extra pol- 6,600 deaths from extra ogy is lower in emissions
lution in 2015. Worldwide, smog. The European Union, and more efficient than
three-quarters of that extra which has mostly diesel one built 10 or even five
pollution is from trucks and cars, had an extra 11,500 years ago,” Schaeffer said
buses. deaths; China, 10,600; In- in a statement.q