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

Drunks ought to be handled in "booze buses" to ease A&E overcrowding

They referred to as for option schemes to be set up, in city centres, or up coming to casualty units.

Anthony McGeown, a nurse from Higher Glasgow, said: “It is reported that every single year 2 million visits to Accident &amp Emergency in England and Wales are due to alcohol connected illness or injury.”

The nurse suggested that Britain should take into account introducing “drunk tanks” – holding facilities launched in many parts of the United States, to accomodate individuals who are heavily intoxicated – or broaden the use of “booze buses” which have been attempted in some British cities in the course of the Christmas season.

Mr McGeown stated: “With the drunk tank tank concept, those who are intoxicated can sober up – without the need for being arrested or hospital care.”

Dr Peter Carter, RCN chief executive, explained pilot schemes ought to be produced to examine options to A&ampE.

He mentioned as well several patients had been struggling worse care, or being treated in frightening surroundings, due to the fact they were surrounded by other individuals who were drunk and sometimes violent.

Dr Carter stated: “Folks that come in inebriated and unconscious they need a whole lot of nursing care and that detracts from care currently being given to other people, but also there are examples of people coming in an aggressive state, perhaps getting been in a battle, blood all over the place, careering all around the area – it can make items extremely tough.”

He stated pilot schemes would need to test regardless of whether choices have been secure, warning that they would need to be ready to identify health care emergencies, this kind of as head injuries.

Dr Carter mentioned: “If you can locate techniques that folks can be securely cared for without going to A&ampE then that is very good, but this will not be low cost because you will need to have diagnostic facilities.”

The head of the RCN warned that Britain now has the highest ever levels of alcohol relevant sickness, this kind of as liver disease, with A&ampE units now dealing with higher numbers of drunks each and every evening of the week.

He stated: “There was a time this was a Friday and Saturday evening phenomenon now it is round the week.”

“Booze buses” have been tried in London, Cardiff, Norwich and York in the course of the Christmas season, with ambulance personnel and 1st assist volunteers assisting inebriated party goers.

Uwem Otong, from the south east Northern Ireland branch of the RCN, stated: “The reality stays that alcohol intoxication is not an accident. A&ampEs in all countries are under intense strain. At a time in which the NHS is dealing with financial burden, it is essential that services are channeled appropriately.

He said it was a “waste of sources” for patients struggling from alcohol-associated difficulties to be sent to A&ampE.

“Somebody takes alcohol being aware of exactly what he or she is doing. With that in thoughts I would propose a circumstance in which people who are intoxicated are moved to a diverse environment to give area to these who are actually possessing accidents, or individuals that demand emergency care.”

Numerous nurses raised issues that producing separate units could suggest that medical problems went undetected, with head injuries simply mistaken for intoxication if not examined closely.

Some recommended new solutions need to be set up near to A&ampEs.

Nykoma Hamilton, from the RCN’s Fife branch, stated: “Sadly this topic is not new. We have witnessed a growth in the binge consuming culture across the Uk.”

She suggested that finding units up coming to A&ampE could relieve strain on units, even though making sure emergency care and exams were shut at hand.

“Absolutely A&ampE currently being complete of drunk men and women will slow down remedy times – there has to be a better remedy. So what about setting up an region adjacent to, but separate from A&ampE at the weekends, when it’s the most hectic, staffed by nurses?”

Highlighting study exhibiting that drunk patients are the principal trigger of violence in hospitals at weekends, growing staff workload, waiting times and patient anxiety, she said: “This need to have a wearing impact on employees morale – they did not go to perform in A&ampE just to deal with a bunch of drunk men and women every weekend who have fallen more than.”

A Department of a Health spokesman mentioned: “Alcohol locations a heavy burden on the NHS and costs around £3.5 billion each year.”

He said the nearby NHS has the freedom to investigate how to make improvements to services.

* Nurses need to be informed to stop waking up patients with noisy chatter or needless interruptions, the conference heard.

Delegates said too several sufferers were becoming subjected to “sleep deprivation” simply because of loud conversations, noisy surroundings and needless wake-up calls – with sufferers even becoming woken up to be provided sleeping drugs.

Drunks ought to be handled in "booze buses" to ease A&E overcrowding

Making outdated age exciting: much more buses, perform locations and loos | Malcolm Dean

Getting out an about can contribute to health and wellbeing, but numerous older men and women are constrained by bad bus companies. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

Bang on time for the start of a new council cycle, a in depth 58-page report will up coming month set out the degree to which neighborhood neighbourhoods must adapt if they are to meet the requirements of an ageing society. In between 2010 and 2018 an additional two million folks will have turn into 65. Two many years after that, the little one boomers of the 1960s start retiring.

For 6 months, two major charities on ageing issues, ILC-United kingdom and Age Uk, have worked with academics, researchers and professionals seeking solutions to the challenges raised by this seismic demographic shift. The report, Making our Communities Prepared for Ageing, focuses on three primary themes: at house obtaining out and about and guaranteeing communities offer what older folks want.

But it goes on to declare: “If communities are to perform for today’s and tomorrow’s older population, planners must emphasis on how we ensure that they supply a lot much more than the essentials. There is not sufficient emphasis on exciting and playfulness for older individuals. Communities require to work for all ages and can not segregate the wants of various groups.”

The bulk of older people (90%) are living in mainstream housing. Of the other 10%, six% are in sheltered or retirement housing, and 4% in residential or nursing homes. There is a mismatch simply because 40% of houses had been constructed just before 1945 and twenty% just before 1919 when residences had been filled with far much more young children – and far fewer older individuals. Equally tough, there have been far as well couple of homes – with significantly less room – created in the final two decades, making adaptations for older individuals much more hard.

These days there are 7 million older householders occupying thirty% of all houses. Currently one.4 million of them have a health care situation that requires specially adapted accommodation. Government projections propose 60% of family development by means of to 2033 will involve someone over 65. But social care, which plays a crucial position in maintaining men and women at property, is in problems. Given that 2010 local authorities have been forced to reduce £1.2bn from the support, cutting off 250,000 older individuals from assist.

The report calls for a greater push on housing enhancements and suggests a tax-incentivised voucher scheme may support. It desires to see improved insulation to decrease the 31,000 extra deaths for the duration of the winter of 2013, and new homes with far more room.

One particular of the ideal approaches of bettering physical and psychological overall health is receiving out and about. Above 3.4 million of the over-65s reside alone. Many truly feel isolated and alone. Three barriers to getting out are: cuts to bus solutions, the squeeze on neighborhood transport, and the closure of public toilets, raising concern amid older men and women of getting “caught out”.

A lengthy checklist of solutions incorporate auto sharing schemes for folks wanting to cease driving neighborhood transport, such as school or university buses, getting open to other folks and far more use of bicycles. Only 1% of journeys created by over-65s in England and Wales involve a bicycle, in contrast to 9% in Germany, 15% in Denmark, and 23% in the Netherlands.

The report calls on wellness and welfare boards to push for a lot more cycling schemes. It also asks the exact same boards to make the availability of public toilets – 40% of which have been shut in the last decade – a public health problem.

There are a number of easy techniques communities could be created far more friendly for an ageing society. More seats at bus stops, in retailers, parks, and public squares. Regional public overall health campaigns on loneliness, involving GPs and encouraging less difficult accessibility to neighborhood groups. And, far more enjoyable by way of a lot more entry to playgrounds for older people.

Making outdated age exciting: much more buses, perform locations and loos | Malcolm Dean