Diesel Cars Contribute To 5,000 Premature Deaths a Year In Europe, Says Study (phys.org)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Emissions from diesel cars rigged to appear eco-friendly may be responsible for 5,000 air pollution deaths per year in Europe alone, according to a study published on Monday. The numbers are in line with previous assessments of deaths due to the so-called "Dieselgate" scandal, which erupted when carmaker Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to cheating on vehicle emissions tests. Many other carmakers have since fallen under suspicion. The researchers from Norway, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands calculated that about 10,000 deaths in Europe per year can be attributed to small particle pollution from light duty diesel vehicles (LDDVs). Almost half of these would have been avoided if emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from diesel cars on the road had matched levels measured in the lab. If diesel cars emitted as little NOx as petrol ones, almost 4,000 of the 5,000 premature deaths would have been avoided, said the authors. The countries with the heaviest burden are Italy, Germany, and France, the team added, "resulting from their large populations and high share of diesel cars in their national fleets." Touted as less polluting, the share of diesel cars in Europe rose fast compared to petrol since the 1990s, and now comprise about half the fleet. There are more than 100 million diesel cars in Europe today, twice as many as in the rest of the world together, said the study authors. Diesel engines emit less planet-warming carbon dioxide than petrol ones, but significantly more NOx. The study has been published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Comments

Re:Does VW get any credit for this criminality?

[thegarbz]

Yeah they all get off free.

Oh except for the VW executive who was arrested at the airport while on holiday and has been stuck in jail for the past 1/3rd of the year.

And the 5 other senior executives who also have been had criminal cases brought against them, though currently they are in Germany so if the USA wants to do something it will have to be via extradition.

Don't let that ruin your narrative though.

Re:Does VW get any credit for this criminality?

[hey!]

I remember one interesting paper I read in my undergraduate psych course which made a lot of intuitive sense: the experiment showed that the likelihood of punishment had a much stronger effect on subject behavior than the severity of punishment. Think of how everyone slows down when they see a cop car parked on the side of the road, but they blithely sail past signs announcing that speeding fines are doubled.

Imagine a universe in which someone involved in the kind of fraud VW did was fined, say, 5% of his annual wages -- a mere slap on the wrist compared to jail time -- but everyone believed that if you did tried it you'd be caught. On other hand, imagine a universe where the punishment was life in prison, but nobody believed anyone would ever get caught. Which universe has the most fraud?

I think we understand this with respect to our own behavior, and yet somehow when a problem like this comes up, we turn to "make the punishment worse" rather than "make the punishment certain." Because it's *easy* to make punishments more severe. It's hard to catch people, bring them to face justice, and successfully try them. But that's what we've got to do.