[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  city’s 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 Delhi’s rich middle   class,
which allows this, should never again grumble   about the   state of
pollution.    

— Anil Agarwal   



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