Diesel pollution is responsible for more deaths than drunk drivers and homicides, according to a new study that estimates how many premature deaths, asthma attacks and heart attacks are caused by diesel pollution in every U.S. county. Nationwide, diesel pollution causes 21,000 premature deaths each year, including 475 in Massachusetts and 81 in Middlesex County, robbing those who die of an average of 14 years of their lives, according to the report by the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force. Residents in nearby Suffolk County suffer the third highest risk of exposure to diesel pollution in the nation, researchers found. The numbers point to a failure of New England states to curb emissions, said Michael Stoddard, an attorney for Environment Northeast, a group that distributed the new report in New England. "No state in New England currently has a systematic plan in place to address this problem," Stoddard, director of ENE's New England Diesel Initiative, said yesterday. "We have legislation about power plants. We have legislation about drunk drivers. We have legislation against firearm violations. Here's something that's in the same class in terms of impact."
To determine diesel pollution's health effects in each U.S. county, the Clean Air Task Force said it employed methodology the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses to assess the health benefits of new rules. The group also used the EPA's county-by-county estimates of diesel emissions. The report compares the estimated 21,000 diesel pollution deaths with the 17,000 annual deaths caused by drunk driving and the nation's 20,000 annual homicides. The analysis concludes diesel pollution has widespread impacts in Massachusetts, including 727 nonfatal heart attacks per year, 9,925 asthma attacks, 43 cancer deaths, 289 cases of chronic bronchitis and 61,842 lost days of work. The effects include 43 premature deaths in Norfolk County, which includes Franklin, Bellingham, Millis and Wellesley, and 23 premature deaths in Worcester County, which includes Milford, Upton and Uxbridge.
*snipped, more cooked stats and voodoo science at link ie cumulative effect assumed but not proven or supported, selective analysis of causation, etc.
In any case, we can now tell the eco-wackies their diesel problem is solved:
Ford Nucleon, 1958
This is only a pipsqueak 4-wheeler but the technology could obviously be adapted to power buses, trucks, tractors; heck, even submarines. ;)
It's quiet, smooth, and runs fifty thousand miles on one fill-up.
Homicidal right-wing SUV drivers would think twice about t-boning it and, best of all, it will not emit any planet-destroying CO2 (unless it melts down and the tires/occupants catch fire).
Beat the heat with the cool blue glow of uranium.