Volkswagen’s diesel deception unleashed tons of extra pollutants in the United States, and although many have been quick to say that the rigged engines are not a highway-safety concern, they do present a health issue.
Unlike the ignition defect in GM vehicles that killed at least 124 people, the Volkswagen pollution is harder to link to individual deaths. But it did damage Americans’ health, and formulas used by researchers can estimate the number of lives lost from excess pollution in general.
So after consulting with experts, The New York Times calculated a possible death toll that, at its upper range, isn’t much smaller than the toll caused by the GM defect. The numbers — the methodology of which is explained later in this story — range from 40 to 106 additional deaths over the time the VW vehicles emitted their extra pollutants.
The estimates examine only the impact on public health in the United States, but the effects would have been substantially higher in Europe, where far more of the VW vehicles were sold.
Volkswagen said last week that it had installed software in 11 million diesel cars that cheated emissions tests, allowing the vehicles to emit far more pollutants than regulations permitted.
The chemicals — known as nitrogen oxides — have been linked to a host of respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, and to premature deaths. Nitrogen oxides are a byproduct of burning fossil fuels at high temperatures, whether in autos, power plants or machines such as industrial boilers. The chemicals can be harmful to humans, and in warm, sunny conditions they can turn into ground-level ozone, or smog, and particle pollution. Nitrogen dioxide and ozone irritate the lungs, increasing airway inflammation, coughing and wheezing, and they can lower resistance to respiratory illnesses such as flu, especially with long-term exposure.
The chemicals also can worsen the suffering and heighten the risk of serious illness or death for those with conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Older and younger people are more vulnerable.
The impact of smog and soot pollution on global health is substantial: A recent paper by Jos Lelieveld, at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, and colleagues estimated that air pollution causes about 3 million premature deaths a year, and that the number of deaths could more than double by 2050. For the full article click here
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