[sustran] fwd: Devil in the diesel
SUSTRAN Resource Centre
sustran at po.jaring.my
Wed Apr 21 18:07:19 JST 1999
An interesting item from the website of India's Centre for Science and
Environment - http://www.cseindia.org
A message from Anil Agarwal, Director, CSE
Devil in the diesel
When industry starts fooling the public what does one do? There is
sufficient scientific evidence to show diesel fumes are particularly
noxious for our health. We also know that we use an extraordinary large
amount of very bad quality diesel. We even know that the standards for
diesel emissions are as low as the level of technology. And we can
definitely smell, breathe and indeed suffer the pollution in our
cities.
But the automobile manufacturers are keen to turn a blind eye to these
facts. Diesel is cheap. A huge price deferential between petrol and diesel
exists because while petrol is taxed, diesel is not. Diesel prices are
intentionally kept low to promote its use in agriculture, to run public
transport and to limit its adulteration with kerosene. But when
industry can make money out of this market distortion, why not?
Telco, already leading the band with its existing models, now plans to
market the diesel Indica. Of the 60,000 Indicas booked so far, 95 per cent
are the diesel versions. Maruti is keen to catch up with its own diesel
vehicles too. And of course, Mahindra Ford, General Motors, Hindustan
Motors and Premier Automobiles Ltd are all in this game. Mercedes-Benz is
even offering luxury at dirt- cheap running costs, while Bajaj Auto and
Crompton Greaves are desperately competing to produce diesel three-
wheelers. People living in polluted and already unhealthy cities like
Delhi must remember that this diesel boom will only make breathing more
difficult.
One, a city like Delhi already uses more diesel than possibly any
Western metropolis. Over the years, its thirst for diesel has only
grown. Between 1990-91 and 1996-97, the citys diesel consumption grew
by almost 70 per cent, while petrol consumption saw a rise of only 30
per cent.
Two, pollution from diesel is either already very high in Delhi or rapidly
increasing. The fuel is the main source of three highly toxic
pollutants: oxides of nitrogen (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and
suspended particulate matter (SPM). As of now, some 95 per cent to 96
per cent of the NOx and SO2, and 100 per cent of the SPM are emitted by
diesel vehicles.
Three, diesel produces extremely toxic particles less than 10 microns in
size. These are known as pm10, which penetrate deep into the lungs and
affect them severely. A recent uk study showed that 90 per cent of
diesel particles are less than 1 micron in size. This particulate matter
in diesel exhaust is coated with highly carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAH).
Last year, after a decade of research, the California Air Resources Board
formally designated diesel particulates as toxic and carcinogenic. The
World Health Organisation (WHO) has also drawn a similar conclusion, that
spm is the most serious of air pollutants, killing about 460,000
peopleeach year. Some 135,000 of these are victims of chronic asthma. The
rest die of cardiovascular or heart diseases diseases Delhites are
familiar with.
Fourth, whereas even the cleanest diesel is being labelled a killer, we add
to our misery by using possibly the dirtiest diesel in the world. And
where countries using far less diesel have strong standards, we using
more diesel have low fuel quality norms. Delhi imports supposedly
clean diesel. But the sulphur content of this clean diesel is 250 times
higher than the cleanest diesel in the world.
Fifth, the quality of diesel engines is poor. The automobile industry is
currently beating its chest saying that it will meet European standards.
Which European standards? Under the emission norms already agreed upon,
that too after much dilution, this world-class automobile industry
will meet European I standards in the year 2000. Remember that these are
standards Europe enforced in 1992. The same cars in Europe will move to
Euro III standards by 2000. We also have to remember that for diesel,
the European standards are less stringent than the US norms, which,
in turn, are lower than California standards.
In polluted and smog-hit Paris, diesel is being called the engines of the
devil. We would hate to term respected Indian businesses similarly. But
given the current industry stance of blocking any move to control
dieselisation of private vehicles, we would not be surprised.
After trying to twist public opinion with scientific hogwash, the
second most common refrain used by industry is to bemoan its
investments in this sector. We, however, have no sympathy for this.
Industry managers have known that diesel is under scientific scrutiny,
is a health hazard and is extremely polluting.
They have taken the risk to invest despite knowing this, because they
hoped to make money. When old three-wheelers were found polluting,
public action demanded their removal from the roads. We cannot have
different standards now: the poor auto owner is driven off, but rich
manufacturers are allowed to make profits by killing us. This would be
the highest degree of hypocrisy, and Delhis rich middle class,
which allows this, should never again grumble about the state of
pollution.
Anil Agarwal
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