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Exhausted by Cars

With ever-tightening vehicle emission regulations and cleaner-running cars, people may think we’ve adequately solved the problem of car pollution. Think again.

A new report by Environment and Human Health Inc. details “an epidemic of illnesses” exacerbated by exhaust-related pollution, including asthma, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and various respiratory illnesses. This report comes on the heels of a southern California study finding that people who live in neighborhoods with heavy air pollution are twice as likely to die from heart attacks, diabetes, and cancer than previously believed.

While we have done a good job of putting cleaner cars and trucks on the road, the distances people are driving have become increasingly longer, producing greater amounts of exhaust than ever before. Americans drive more than anyone else in the world. In 2000, they put a collective 2.3 trillion miles on their cars and trucks, burning 8.2 million barrels of fuel per day and releasing 302 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Children are particularly vulnerable to the pollution caused by vehicle emissions. Their greatest exposure time is during the bus ride to and from school, while they sit in traffic and breathe in the exhaust from idling vehicles. Studies show children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems are at greatest risk from exposure to air pollution, but even the healthiest of young adults will suffer adverse effects from breathing dirty air.

Carbon dioxide emissions from cars and trucks also contribute to global warming. But there are things we can do to help cut back on the dirty air we produce: turn off your car when you stop for an errand or wait in carpool lines at school; combine errands and buy in bulk so you make fewer trips; carpool; use public transportation; drive a fuel-efficient car; don’t speed or drive aggressively, as this makes your car less fuel efficient; and walk or ride your bike whenever possible.

For a copy of the EHHI report, please visit: www.ehhi.org

For more information on this story, go to:

http://ehhi.org/exhaust/exhaust_effects06.htm

For information on Americans and their driving habits and fuel consumption, please click here.

For information on what you can do to prevent global warming, go to: www.cleartheair.org

www.fightglobalwarming.com

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org