Diesel cars are 10 times more toxic than trucks and buses, data shows

Modern diesel cars produce 10 times more toxic air pollution than heavy trucks and buses, new European data has revealed.

The stark difference in emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) is due to the much stricter testing applied to large vehicles in the EU, according to the researchers behind a new report. They say the same strict measures must be applied to cars.

NOx pollution is responsible for tens of thousands of early deaths across Europe, with the UK suffering a particularly high toll. Much of the pollution is produced by diesel cars, which on the road emit about six times more than allowed in the official lab-based tests. Following the Volkswagen “dieselgate” scandal, the car tests are due to be toughened, but campaigners say the reforms do not go far enough.

The new report from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), a research group that played a key role in exposing Volkswagen’s cheating, compared the emissions from trucks and buses in realistic driving conditions with those of cars.

It found that heavy-duty vehicles tested in Germany and Finland emitted about 210mg NOx per kilometre driven, less than half the 500mg/km pumped out by modern diesel cars that meet the highest “Euro 6” standard. However, the buses and trucks have larger engines and burn more diesel per kilometre, meaning that cars produce 10 times more NOx per litre of fuel.

The ICCT analysis showed that manufacturers were able to ensure that heavy duty vehicles kept below pollution limits when on the road, but that emissions from cars soar once in the real world.

Official EU tests for cars are currently limited to laboratory measurements of prototype vehicles. “In contrast, for measurement of NOx emissions from trucks and buses, mobile testing devices became mandatory in 2013. As a consequence, randomly selected vehicles can be tested under real-world driving conditions,” said Peter Mock, managing director of ICCT in Europe.

Changes to the car testing regime in the EU are due to start in September, with mobile devices, called portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS), attached to vehicles as they drive on real roads.

But Mock warned: “Manufacturers will still be allowed to carefully select special prototype cars for emissions testing. Instead, it would be much better to measure the emissions of ordinary mass-production vehicles, obtained from customers who have had been driving them in an ordinary way.”

Such a system is used in the US where the dieselgate scandal first emerged. It will also be put forward for discussion by the European commission on 17 January in Brussels, but the ICCT said it faces resistance from some vehicle manufacturers and EU member states.

In December, the European commission started legal action against the UK and six other EU states for failing to act against car emissions cheating in the wake of the dieselgate scandal. But later the same month, a draft European parliament inquiry found the European commission itself guilty of maladministration for failing to act quickly enough on evidence that defeat devices were being used to game emissions tests.

Evidence that some diesel cars emitted up to four times more NOx pollution than a bus was revealed in 2015. Catherine Bearder, a Liberal Democrat MEP and a lead negotiator on the EU’s air quality law, said “It is disgraceful that car manufacturers have failed to reduce deadly emissions when the technology to do so is affordable and readily available. The dramatic reduction in NOx emissions from heavier vehicles is a result of far stricter EU tests, in place since 2011, that reflect real-world driving conditions. If buses and trucks can comply with these limits, there’s no reason cars can’t as well.”

Diesel cars are 10 times more toxic than trucks and buses, data shows

Petrol cars allowed to exceed pollution limits by 50% under draft EU laws

New European cars with petrol engines will be allowed to overshoot a limit on toxic particulates emissions by 50% under a draft EU regulation backed by the UK and most other EU states.

Campaigners say that a simple €25 (£22) filter could drastically cut the pollution, but the Guardian has learned that car-makers have instead mounted a successful push for loopholes and legislative delay.

Bas Eickhout, a Green MEP on the European parliament’s environment committee and dieselgate inquiry panel, promised action to ensure that the lessons of the VW scandal were learned.

“With this ridiculous proposal, the EU’s member states are again trying to dilute EU laws at a terrible cost to human health. We will call on the European commission to come to the European parliament and explain themselves on this issue,” he said.

Particulate matter (PM) is the largest single contributor to the estimated 600,000 premature deaths across Europe from pollution-related heart and lung diseases each year. Children and the elderly are worst affected, and the associated health costs could be as high as €1.6tn a year in Europe, according to the World Health Organisation.

Although exhaust fumes from diesel and petrol engines are one of the largest sources of particulates emissions, most EU member states support raising the EU’s pollution standard 50% above the legal limit set down in the Euro 6 regulation. Behind the scenes, vehicle makers have pushed strongly for a staggering 300% over, according to material seen by the Guardian.

The draft regulation is still being discussed by EU member states and the auto industry has not given up hopes of wrenching further concessions on particulate emissions ahead of a final decision on 7 December.

One Powerpoint slide shown to EU expert groups by the European automobile manufacturers association (Acea) says that a 300% latitude in meeting the letter of the law would be “realistic” because of “measurement uncertainty” in emissions tests.

Florent Grelier, a clean vehicles engineer at the Transport and Environment (T&E) campaign group, told the Guardian she feared that EU attempts to improve air quality were being “bent to the will of the automotive industry”.

“This is a petrolgate scandal in the making,” she said. “Unless the European commission and governments establish strict test procedures to protect the industry from its own short-sightedness, within a few years we will see continuing high levels of particles killing hundreds of thousands of citizens prematurely.”

Under EU law, car-manufacturers are already obliged to use filters for diesel engines, but not for the rapidly-growing 40% of the petrol engine market which is made up by uncontrolled gasoline direct injection engines. These release more particulate matter than modern diesel cars.

Gasoline particulate filters could reduce these emissions by a factor of around 100, and would cost manufacturers just €25 per car, according to research by T&E. But car manufacturers have argued this would violate the principle of technology neutrality.

A spokesman for Acea declined to comment on the issue.

Calls by the auto industry for a delay in implementing the new regulation have been well received by several car-producing EU countries. Spain and Sweden argued for a one-year legislative delay that would push its introduction back to 2019, in minutes of a technical committee meeting earlier this month seen by the Guardian.

The UK took no formal position on when the new regulation should enter into force but warned of “unintended adverse effects” if PM limits were given a separate starting date to standards for another pollutant, nitriogen oxide (NOx) , which will now begin in 2019.

An EU group of national experts – the technical committee on motor vehicles – is now expected to sign off on the final proposal to amend the Euro 6 regulation for real world driving emissions, in December.

The issue of “conformity factors” – or compensating for uncertainties in emissions tests – last year led the committee to impose a NOx limit 110% higher than the one written into the Euro 6 regulations last year.

Petrol cars allowed to exceed pollution limits by 50% under draft EU laws

The 33 "Safest" New Cars For 2015

As with all of the designs in this gallery, the Lexus CT 200h was awareded a Prime Safety Pick+ designation by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for across-the-board “great” ratings in their stringent crash tests as nicely as for accident avoidance. It is rated “sophisticated” for frontal crash avoidance, with “superior” becoming the top grade in that regard.(Applies to models built after 9/14).

The 33 "Safest" New Cars For 2015

Welsh government bans smoking in cars with little one passengers

The Welsh government says Wales is the very first nation in the United kingdom to tackle the problem of smoking in cars when children are existing. Photograph: Alamy

A ban on smoking in automobiles when young children are current is to be introduced by the Welsh government, 1st minister, Carwyn Jones, announced on Tuesday. The government in Cardiff stated a consultation on what it called a “landmark proposal” will be introduced shortly.

Two years in the past the Labour-run government launched its Fresh Start off Wales campaign to try to persuade men and women from smoking in private automobiles when young children were current.

It is claiming some accomplishment with new study concluding that the quantity of people who do not let smoking in their principal car has enhanced, from 71% in September 2011 to 76% in November 2013.

The analysis identified that the quantity of children who said that smoking was permitted in the family auto when they have been in it had halved to all around ten%.

But Jones explained: “We created clear during that campaign we would think about the probability of legislation when proof of prevalence of smoking in cars carrying kids in Wales is offered.

“Although I welcome the fact the variety of kids being exposed to smoking in vehicles has declined, a sizeable minority of young people are still being exposed and grownups carry on to smoke in their cars when children are existing.”

He additional: “We will press ahead with ideas to ban individuals smoking in autos carrying children.”

The government says Wales was the first nation in the United kingdom to tackle the situation of smoking in vehicles when young children are present.

Legislation on banning smoking is a devolved matter and new laws would apply only to Wales. But the Cardiff administration mentioned it was liaising with the division of overall health in England to coordinate the two government’s approaches. In England, MPs voted earlier this 12 months to ban the practice.

Welsh government bans smoking in cars with little one passengers

British Lung Basis: smoking in cars "could lead to meningitis" in kids

The Commons will vote on whether to give the well being secretary the power to impose a ban on smoking in vehicles, despite the opposition of some MPs like members of the Cabinet.

Steven Wibberley from the British Lung Foundation explained the overall health implications of smoking in automobiles.

“Simply because it truly is an enclosed environment, it concentrates the smoke and the toxins in that smoke and due to the fact children have got modest underdeveloped lungs, that has a true impact on their overall health.”

“It leads to factors like asthma, chest infections, ear infections, but also even factors like meningitis.”

Downing Street has confirmed that Prime Minister would miss the vote, as he is staying in the South West overnight to pay a visit to locations impacted by flooding, but indicated that he believes “the time has come” for a ban on smoking in vehicles containing young children.

British Lung Basis: smoking in cars "could lead to meningitis" in kids

Smoking ban in cars when driving with young children: do you agree?

Smoking in vehicles exposes young children to notably “substantial amounts of tobacco smoke” say health professionals in a letter to MPs. Photograph: Alamy

MPs will vote Monday on no matter whether to back a ban on smoking in autos when young children are current. Divisions in Tory and Liberal Democrat ranks indicate Labour help is most likely to carry the ban by way of the Commons.

If the Commons backs the amendment to the Youngsters and Families Bill, the Well being Secretary will have the power to bring in a ban in England, empowering the government to make it a criminal offence for drivers to fail to avert smoking in their autos when youngsters are existing.

Final week, much more than 700 well being specialists wrote an open letter to MPs urging them to back the measure.

The shadow public wellness minister, Luciana Berger, explained 300,000 GP appointments every yr consequence from kids suffering from the results of secondhand smoke, like these who have had to endure passive smoking in the back of a vehicle.

The letter writes that smoking in automobiles exposes youngsters to specifically “higher quantities of tobacco smoke” and there is now a consensus that kids must be protected from this kind of pointless hazards

Bans on smoking in autos carrying kids presently exist in countries which includes Australia, Canada, South Africa and the US.

What do you believe? Should it be a criminal offence to avert smoking in your automobile when kids are existing? Do you consider the law has any possibility of getting enforced? Vote and share your view in the comment thread under

Smoking ban in cars when driving with young children: do you agree?

Banning smoking in cars is bizarre, intrusive - and correct

So I expect that for several individuals of my generation, there is something bizarre and intrusive about the notion of the Government telling us that we could no longer smoke in the privacy of our personal autos. I mean, if you cannot smoke in your very own automobile, in the presence of children, then why should you be permitted to smoke in the presence of children anywhere? What about the bathroom? What about the kitchen, or any other enclosed room? The logic of this proposal is definitely to allow the state to invigilate our behaviour in our very own private house – and some individuals may possibly legitimately wonder in which it will finish.

All this is to say, in short, that I realize those fine libertarian objections and I want to remind my fellow free spirits that this column is normally the final bastion of liberty. I have campaigned towards mandatory health warnings on wine bottles and necessary ski helmets and necessary booster seats for children below a certain height. I have spoken out against a ban on everything from fox hunting to the correct of each and every freeborn Englishman to make a contact on his mobile even though cycling.

In this case, I fully acknowledge the objections of my fellow libertarians. If we ban smoking even though young children are in the car, we produce yet another offence that the police will have to enforce we develop a new group of criminal and above all we take away personalized accountability from all individuals who should know greater.

Certainly to goodness, you might say, men and women these days are aware of the dilemma of passive smoking? Certainly all smokers know that they shouldn’t be puffing away in a auto, whilst the pink defenceless lungs of children are sucking in the evil vapours?

Alas, I am afraid that men and women both do not know, or really do not care ample. I have invested as well significantly time in the past few years speaking to medical doctors and to public health authorities to have the slightest doubt about this a single. Smoking is a substantial killer in this nation. It is still the largest cause of preventable death in Britain – even though weight problems is now puffing to catch up. Smoking causes cancer, heart illness, stroke, emphysema, you name it. As well many young people, particularly young ladies, are taking it up with no any actual understanding of the dangers, and when they do recognize the dangers they are akratic – they just can’t help themselves.

All the scientific studies I have observed say the same: the better the restrictions you area on smoking, the significantly less tobacco is consumed, and the fewer deaths you have – especially from heart condition. Of program I really don’t want the state nosing into our residences, but there are millions of young children who are currently being unfairly exposed to tobacco smoke in autos that do not have the wonderful rents in the canvas and other picturesque ventilation techniques of my grandfather’s Land Rover. They cannot protest, and very frequently the smoker in the automobile lacks the will to stub it out.

This law would give that smoker an added legal crucial to obey their conscience and do the correct issue. And no, I really do not feel it would involve the police in a massive new anti-car-smoking process force, diverting them from dealing with robbery. This is 1 of those measures like the alcohol ban on London’s buses, which has aided carry down bus crime forty per cent in the past 6 years: it is largely enforced by the all-natural social stress of disapproval backed by law.

So I apologise to all my libertarian chums: I am afraid on this one I am firmly with the bossyboots brigade. Ban smoking with youngsters in the automobile. It is a disgusting point to do and endangers their wellness. The proposal prior to Parliament is a great one that will save lives.

Banning smoking in cars is bizarre, intrusive - and correct

Hundreds of well being experts phone for smoking ban in cars carrying young children

About 700 physicians, nurses and other health professionals have referred to as on the Government to ban smoking in automobiles carrying children ahead of a Commons vote on Monday.

In a letter to the British Health care Journal, respiratory specialists explained second-hand smoke was a “major result in of ill wellness in children”, damaging the lungs, leading to sudden infant death and major to thousands of hospital trips a yr.

They claimed people objecting to a modify in the law assumed there was a “right to force young children to breathe tobacco smoke”. Objectors “seem to worth this a lot more hugely than the children’s right to breathe clean air”, they added.

The letter comes as a minister announced there would be a Commons vote on the problem on Monday. Robert Goodwill, the transport minister, informed MPs he would vote in favour of a ban, having been forced to sit in the back of a auto as a little one although his father smoked.

Smoking lobbyists hit back. Simon Clark, the director of Forest, mentioned: “Smoking in autos with young children is inconsiderate but there is a line the state shouldn’t cross when it comes to dictating how individuals behave in private spots.

“Very few grownups smoke in a vehicle with youngsters these days. Government must take encouragement from that and focus on training not legislation.”

“We urge MPs to reject this needless intrusion into people’s private lives and trust mothers and fathers to make the appropriate selection for their young children without having the need for hefty-handed state intervention.”

Hundreds of well being experts phone for smoking ban in cars carrying young children

David Cameron will consider banning smoking in cars

A ban on smoking in cars carrying children is currently in area in some states in America, Australia, Canada and a handful of nations in Europe.

Shadow well being secretary Andy Burnham says Britain ought to follow suit.

He told Sky Information: “When it comes to strengthening the health of kids, we are duty bound to think about any measure that might make a big difference.

“Grownups are free to make their personal alternatives but that usually does not apply to young children and which is why society has an obligation to defend them from preventable harm.”

Speaking on Radio 4’s Right now programme, Luciana Berger, the shadow public overall health minister, accused the government of ignoring evidence supporting the ban and making an attempt to “kick this concern into the long grass”.

She stated: “A single cigarette can generate concentrations of tobacco smoke in a automobile that is 23 instances a lot more toxic than in a normal property.

“Ministers have scrapped study that the last Labour government commissioned on smoking in automobiles with youngsters.

“They have attempted to kick this situation into the long grass and that’s why labour has brought forward these proposals right now and why we are going to force the vote in parliament.

“Virtually half a million young children in England are exposed to prospective toxic levels of 2nd hand smoke in loved ones autos each and every single week and that’s why we are calling for action.

The Division of Overall health has said it believes training campaigns are a greater way to discourage men and women from smoking all around children.

Professional-smoking groups think a legal ban is unnecessary and insist most adult smokers pick not to light up when they are in a auto with children.

Simon Clark, director of Forest, said: “I consider this legislation is really hefty-handed, entirely needless and according to surveys 84 per cent of adults wouldn’t dream of lighting a cigarette in a vehicle, in a little enclosed space with a kid current.

“So grownups previously know how to behave, they do not need to have the state interfering in their lives like this. If there are still some men and women who smoke in a car with kids, then lets educate them, but lets not legislate.

“It truly is almost going to be extremely hard to enforce anyway and the danger is that the police will have to ban smoking in all automobiles.

“We could have a scenario were a lone driver, in his very own automobile will be committing an offence by lighting a cigarette and what’s the next logical stage following that? Are we going to ban smoking in the residence as nicely if kids are present.”

But Ms Berger mentioned Labour had no programs to widen the ban from autos to personal properties.

She stated: “Which is not what we are saying, we are speaking about the very distinct situation of youngsters in a auto that will not have a choice which vehicle they are in that are subjected to ranges of toxic smoke which are 23 instances much more toxic than in the house.”

But supporters of the ban claim there is overwhelming public help.

Labour cites a YouGov poll from 2011 that found 78 per cent of adults in Wonderful Britain agreeing that smoking should be banned in automobiles carrying kids younger than 18 years of age, while 44 per cent agreed that smoking should be banned in all cars.

David Cameron will consider banning smoking in cars

Smoking in cars carrying kids could be banned

Smoking in vehicles carrying kids is presently unlawful in Australia, Canada and components of the US. Photograph: PA

Smoking in vehicles with a little one inside could turn into unlawful, if a vote in the House of Lords is passed on Wednesday.

Labour has proposed an amendment to the young children and households bill intended to discourage men and women from smoking around younger people.

Drivers would be committing an offence if they failed to prevent smoking in their vehicles when a youngster was current.

The shadow overall health secretary, Andy Burnham, says Britain should comply with the illustration set by Australia, Canada and a variety of American states.

He told Sky Information, “When it comes to improving the wellness of children, we are duty bound to take into account any measure that may make a big difference.

“Adults are free to make their personal options but that usually does not apply to kids, and that is why society has an obligation to defend them from preventable harm.

“Proof from other nations exhibits that stopping smoking in the confined room of a car carrying kids can avert damage to their overall health, and has strong public assistance.”

Smoking in workplaces and enclosed public spaces has been banned considering that 2007.

The shadow public well being minister, Luciana Berger, informed BBC Radio 4′s These days programme that if bill was not passed, the move would be integrated in Labour’s manifesto at the subsequent basic election.

Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ rights group Forest, informed the programme this kind of legislation would be hard to enforce, with the finish result of obtaining to ban smoking in all autos.

“I feel this legislation is quite hefty-handed, entirely needless, and according to surveys 84% of grownups wouldn’t dream of lighting a cigarette in a automobile, in a modest enclosed room, with a child present.

“So grownups presently know how to behave. They never require the state interfering in their lives like this. If there are even now some folks who smoke in a automobile with youngsters, then let us educate them but let us not legislate.”

Smoking in cars carrying kids could be banned