According to a recent study, “badly tuned” cars and trucks are huge polluters. Though they makeup just one quarter of the vehicles on the road, they’re responsible for most vehicular air pollution. 

Air pollution is linked to a host of health ailments, many of which can be fatal. From asthma in children to heart disease, cancer, and overall increased rates of premature death in adults — the problem is worth public attention, especially in places with particularly poor air quality. And the new study found that controlling the problem may be easier than we first thought, considering that just 25 percent of cars on the road are responsible for a whopping 90 percent of vehicular air pollution.

According to the study, published in the journal Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, “badly tuned” cars are responsible for most of the air pollution. Researchers at the University of Toronto looked at 100,000 cars as they drove past air sampling probes on one of Toronto’s major roads.

The study found that 95 percent of black carbon, also known as soot, 93 percent of carbon monoxide, and 76 percent of volatile organic chemicals (like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes), were caused by just one quarter of cars on the road. Volatile organic compounds are often carcinogenic.

“We used to think that living near a major road meant that you lived near a lot of air pollution,” Greg Evans, a chemical engineer at University of Toronto said in a statement. “But what we’re finding is that it’s not that simple, someone living right on a major road in the suburbs may not be exposed to as much pollution as someone living downtown on a side street near many major roads.”

Evans and his team found that policy changes need to better target cars that are causing the majority of the air pollution.

“The ultrafine particles are particularly troubling,” says Evans. “Because they are over 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, they have a greater ability to penetrate deeper within the lung and travel in the body.”

The researchers also found that building roadways near those that are particularly vulnerable to air pollution is also problematic. Busy roadways near schools, hospitals, daycare centers, and senior residences may put people at risk to some of the health problems associated with poor air quality.

“The most surprising thing we found was how broad the range of emissions was,” says Evans. “As we looked at the exhaust coming out of individual vehicles, we saw so many variations. How you drive, hard acceleration, age of the vehicle, how the car is maintained – these are things we can influence that can all have an effect on pollution.”

Unless we see smog in our everyday lives, we often forget about the impact of poorly tuned vehicles, but this research is a good reminder that air pollution can take its toll and poorly maintained cars can have a larger effect than we ever could have imagined.

Related on EcoSalon

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Image of car exhaust from Shuttershock

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Nearly 90 percent of the major cities in China have failed to meet air quality standards in 2014, according to a new report by the country’s Minister of Environmental Protection. The report found that 66 of 74 major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin did not meet standards. The Hebei Province, which surrounds Beijing, is home to the 10 worst cities in terms of air pollution.

The only positive was that according to the report, 2014 had 3.7 percent fewer “severely polluted” days compared to 2013. The bulk of the country’s most polluted cities are located in the north. On the other hand, the Hainan Province, an island in southern China, boasted the nation’s best air quality and the least air pollution.

China is well known for its urban pollution, which in some cases is at toxic levels. The pollution measures include regular readings of particles found in the air as well as carbon monoxide and ozone. Chinese scientists have already warned that the toxic soup of pollution is slowing photosynthesis and as a result, hurting agricultural production.

The “pea soup” smog which blankets the northern cities is small enough to get into people’s lungs and bloodstreams, impacting public heath. And even tourism has felt the pangs of the dirty air with grounded flights and closed highways. It’s been described as looking like a nuclear winter.

One man, Li Guixin, is even suing the government as a result of the pollution. “Besides the threat to our health, we’ve also suffered economic losses, and these losses should be borne by the government and the environmental departments because the government is the recipient of corporate taxes, it is a beneficiary,” he told the Yanzhao Metropolis Daily, according to The Guardian.

The problem is enough to motivate real change in a country that has grown at an astonishing rate. Reducing smog in China will take huge acts like tightening control over power plant emissions and capping coal consumption. Inefficient coal fired industrial boilers need to be shut down and cleaner fuel standards need to be introduced. China is also ideal grounds for the growth of the electric car. And finally, improved urban planning needs to include more green space.

Coal causes the majority of China’s emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter. So what better place to expand zero emission energy sources like wind and solar? This expansion, along with phasing out coal power, would make the biggest difference in air quality in these highly populated areas. I hope this motivates China to take steps in the right direction to get a hold on smog, especially in the northern cities.

What do you think of China’s pollution problems and what would you do to fix them? Do you take your air quality for granted and have you ever lived with bad air quality?

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Young Chinese boy wearing air pollution mask from Shuttershock

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Beijing artist sells a glass jar of fresh French air at auction for $860. The move signifies the problems with Beijing air quality.

Can we put a price tag on something as invaluable as fresh air? Apparently, yes. And it happened.

Beijing-based artist Liang Kegang auctioned off a small glass jar filled with fresh air from Province, France. And the going price? $860.

While on a recent trip to the south of France, Liang couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a statement in response to the detrimental state of Beijing’s air quality issue. He photographed himself ‘filling’ the ‘clean south of France air’ into the jar on March 29, 2014. The jar sold at an auction on March 30 to Chengdu-based artist and entrepreneur Li Yongzheng.

Beijing, a city home to twenty-one million people, is one of the world’s most polluted cities. Extremely highs levels of thick smog constantly pose serious health issues to Beijing’s citizens. As the chart below shows, since April 2008, there has only been 184 days total where air quality levels were considered good.

Six years of Beijing air pollution summed up. image: Quartz

“Air should be the most valueless commodity, free to breathe for any vagrant or beggar,” Liang said in an interview. “This is my way to question China’s foul air and express my dissatisfaction.”

featured image: Sunset Noir and Home Naturals

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For Pregnant Women, Air Pollution Just As Bad As Cigarettes

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With air pollution on the rise around the world, just breathing could put pregnant women at risk.

Most women realize that certain behaviors are bad for fetal health, so those who use cigarettes or drink regularly often stop during pregnancy. One thing pregnant women can’t stop doing though, is breathing, and according to a recent study about air pollution, that could increase their risk of developing deadly complications such as preeclampsia.

Researchers from the University of Florida found that pregnant women who endure constant exposure to air pollution are significantly more likely to develop a high blood pressure disorder during pregnancy, which causes big problems for mother and fetus.

There are very few places on Earth where air pollution isn’t an issue…even inside our homes. For many years, coal-fired power plants and fossil-fuel powered cars have been chugging air pollution into the atmosphere. This is bad news for any creature that breathes, but researchers found that heavy exposure to four of these air pollutants is especially bad for pregnant women.

“The pollutants include two specific types of fine and coarse particulate matter, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. These inhalable particles are released from industries and forest fires and can form when gases react with each other in the air. Sulfur dioxide is emitted from power plants and industries. Most carbon monoxide is produced by car exhaust,” explains a University of Florida press release.

During the study, the researchers examined data from more than 22,000 women who gave birth in Jacksonville, Florida, between 2004 and 2005, along with environmental data from their communities. More than four percent of these women developed a hypertensive disorder during pregnancy, and even after controlling for factors like socioeconomic status, exposure to co-pollutants and smoking during pregnancy, exposure to air pollutants throughout the first two trimesters of pregnancy was found to increase risk of developing hypertensive disorders such as gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and the deadly condition it leads to, eclampsia.

On the basis of these findings, the researchers say more air pollution control is necessary to prevent dangerous complications in pregnant women and babies. Which makes it even more disheartening to learn that the U.S. Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environment recently killed a bill that would have allowed the Division of Air Quality to adopt rules that are more stringent than federal regulations.

Apparently when it comes to air pollution, our government thinks the status quo is good enough.

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Image: blmurch

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China’s urban air pollution went off the charts this past winter, and the world took notice. With aggressive policies on the books, is this industrial giant finally admitting that health is more important than production? 

In a list of the world’s most polluted nations, China is a shoe-in. An accelerated pace of development–including dozens of new textile mills, rubber and fertilizer plants, oil refineries and coal-fired power plants–has left many of China’s cities covered in a thick blanket of life-choking smog.

In early 2013, Beijing made global headlines when NASA images showed the city almost completely obscured in a cloud of airborne particular visible from space. Residents were urged to wear gas masks and advised to stay indoors as much as possible.

No nation, especially one so interested in foreign manufacturing contracts, can afford that type of publicity. So, at least at the legislative level, China has recently announced sweeping changes that could clean up the rampant air pollution and go a long way toward creating healthier cities for its residents.

1. Big Investment

In late July, China’s state media announced a government plan to invest 1.7 trillion yuan ($277 billion) to combat air pollution over the next five years. Citing growing social discontent with China’s air quality as a motivating factor, a government report laid out plans to reduce air emissions by 25 percent by 2017 compared with 2012 levels, especially focusing on urban areas like Beijing.

2. Gasoline Tax

People complain about expensive gas the world over, as if cheap fossil fuels were some kind of human right. They’re not. In fact, countries like America use taxpayer dollars to dish up deep subsidies to Big Oil and Coal. These subsidies are some of the only reasons our gas prices have been so much lower than the rest of the world’s for decades. If people had to pay the true price of gas, they’d probably stop driving so much.

That’s the assumption that led China’s government to unveil a fuel pollution tax that will be added to standard gas prices sometime in the next 12 months. Under current tax law, a liter of gas (about a third of a gallon) is around 8 yuan or $1.30. When the pollution tax is added, a liter of gas will cost ten yuan, or $1.62. This brings it up to about $4.50 a gallon. If this pollution tax is successful in Beijing, the government plans to implement it across the country.

3. Electric Vehicles

As America has so willingly demonstrated, it’s not easy to get a nation of oil-addicted drivers to make the switch to greener vehicles. We like our big engines and our independence. China is the same way, only they have 1.35 billion people to the USA’s 316 million. To help ease the pain of transitioning away from fossil fuels, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology’s (MOST) announced a Five-Year Plan for Electric Vehicles, actively encouraging its citizens to buy electric bikes, scooters, and cars. The nation is targeting 5 million EVs and PHEVs on the road by 2020, although progress has been slower than desired. 

Related on Ecosalon:

7 Things You Should Know About China’s Pollution Problem

Re-Thinking China

Image: Kevin Dooley, Vmenkov

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Are Americans optimistic about the environment, ignorant or just plain lazy? Are they fatigued from all the “green” messaging and cause marketing out there? Or are they just complacent? A recent Gallup poll has shown that “over time, Americans’ concerns about environmental problems have generally declined.”

That’s hard to believe when there’s more environmental damage caused by Americans and more news about this available to us than ever before.

Just this week, ships are avoiding their normal cargo routes so that they can keep burning dirty fuel and skirt new air pollution laws around California.

And across the country, residents in the watershed areas of Skaneateles and Otisco lakes in New York are fighting a bill that would permit “hydrofracking” – a natural gas mining method that’s destructive to ecosystems and freshwater – on their private lands.

These examples are both driven by economic concerns. The shippers don’t want to pay fines or spend money on improved rigs. New York’s cash-starved state government is considering a bill that will bring taxpayer dollars to the state, with mining jobs and corporate real estate deals to replace low profit farms that are on some of that private property now.

Making matters worse, state budgets for environmental programs have been slashed, so even government agencies are holding out a tin cup or soliciting donations to support their good green work. In Atlanta, the House just passed a bill that would allow their own Department of Natural Resources to conduct fundraising through a non-profit to make up for a smaller slice of the taxpayer money pie.

At least defense budgets are also feeling the pinch.

If a 20-year low in levels of environmental concern wasn’t totally caused by money problems, Gallup suggested optimism may be to blame; Americans believe the environment is improving.

Basic Reading:

“Global warming concerns have ebbed and flowed, dipping to the lowest point since 1997. They’ve fallen precipitously since 2007, from 41% who worry ‘a great deal’ to 28%. Of eight [key environmental] issues, Americans now worry the least about global warming and the most about drinking-water pollution, which has often been a top concern.” – via USA Today

“Thanks in large part to partisan bickering and scandals such as Snowpocalypse and ClimateGate, confusion over global warming has reached a fevered pitch. At the same time, the economic slump is swallowing the public’s attention. What we may be witnessing is an endemic shift in prioritization, which raises the question: What, if anything, can instill a renewed sense of purpose?” – Mother Jones

“Climate hasn’t yet become as partisan an issue as, say, health care and taxes. But it’s getting there.” – How Republicans Learned to Reject Climate Change via NPR

Further Resources:

A debate over cause marketing fatigue – how many messages will consumers care about? – AdAge

“‘Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations.’ Jean Paul Richter. It seems that we humans are caught in the crushing curl of our own giant wave of trash. A long, sad and glorious tradition of using and dumping that spans the entirety of our time on earth…” – SuperEco.com

Ohio air quality officials complain the EPA is “trying to make us do too much too quickly,” on cutting smog – Cleveland.com

Are American Students Lazy? – InsideHigherEd.com

According to an EPA report, our air is getting cleaner relative to population growth and gross domestic product increases.

Image: rolands.lakis

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If you’ve noticed it’s easier to breathe on some days than others, you’re not alone. In fact, this year marks the 10th annual American Lung Association State of the Air report, which has been tracking air quality across the United States for a decade. Just enter your zip code to learn how your area fares and what you can do to help make the air a little cleaner.

After sifting through the Executive Summary, we’ve chosen a few key points to share:

– Six out of ten people (61.7%) in the United States population live in counties that have unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution.

– Approximately 4 million children and 10.9 million adults with asthma live in parts of the United States with very high levels of ozone, and over 5.7 million adults and 2.1 million children with asthma live in areas with high levels of short-term particle pollution.

The nations needs to:

Clean up dirty power plants

Coal-fired power plants are among the largest contributors to particulate pollution, ozone, mercury and global warming. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should immediately take action to reduce emissions and expand clean-up requirements for power plants nationwide. The American Lung Association has taken legal action repeatedly to fight to require power plants to clean up.

Clean up the existing fleet of dirty diesel

The good news is that affordable technology exists to virtually eliminate this problem and the economic recovery legislation is investing $300 million at the EPA for the voluntary diesel retrofit program.

Clean up ocean-going vessels

Ocean-going vessels, like cruise ships, container ships and tankers, deliver staggering amounts of smog-forming oxides of nitrogen, particle pollution, sulfur dioxide and heat-trapping carbon dioxide. By 2030, these vessels will produce approximately 45 per cent of the national inventory of mobile source particle pollution emissions, harming health, worsening global warming and creating acid rain. New evidence shows that pollution from these vessels reaches parts of the country far inland from the 40 port cities that have recognized air pollution problems.

What can you do?

Drive less

Combine trips, walk, bike, carpool or vanpool, and use buses, subways or other alternatives to driving. Vehicle emissions are a major source of air pollution. Support community plans that provide ways to get around that don’t require a car, such as more sidewalks, bike trails and transit systems.

Don’t burn wood or trash

Check school busses

Make sure your local school system requires clean school buses, which includes replacing or retrofitting old school buses with filters and other equipment to reduce emissions.

Use less electricity

Turn out the lights and use energy-efficient appliances. Generating electricity is one of the biggest sources of pollution, particularly in the eastern United States.

Send a message to decision makers

Send an email or fax to urge Congress to oppose measures that weaken the Clean Air Act.

Take pride if you’ve been listed as one of the cleanest cities:

Fargo-Wahpeton, ND-MN emerged as the cleanest city in the U.S., the only city to appear on all three lists of cleanest cities. 17 cities appeared on two of the three lists of cleanest cities: Billings, MT; Bismarck, ND; Cheyenne, WY; Colorado Springs, CO; Farmington, NM; Ft. Collins, CO; Honolulu, HI; Lincoln, NE; Midland-Odessa, TX; Port St. Lucie, FL; Pueblo, CO; Redding, CA; Salinas, CA; San Luis Obispo, CA; Santa Fe-Espanola, NM; Sioux Falls, ND; and Tucson, AZ.

Image: Angelrays

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