A report from Nature notes “international weekly journal of science”, diesel emissions are a lot more damaging than we previously thought. The report states diesel emissions not just impact the environment, but crop yields and human health. The observation concerned 11 major auto markets: the European Union, China, the United States, Mexico, Canada, Russia, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia, and Brazil. The issue comes from real-world diesel applications producing much more nitrogen oxides than observed in lab testing.
This isn’t really a cheat gadget issue-it’s a fair bit larger than that. It is not shocking that the report says heavy-duty automobiles are the most significant factor of excess diesel emissions. The overall is 4.6 million tons more emissions than global requirements permit. The study concludes a massive 38,000 premature deaths were triggered globally by these excess emissions in 2015. How do diesel emissions take lives of people? Nitrogen oxides damage lung tissues and respond with other chemicals to form ozone.
Ozone makes lung diseases like asthma even worse. When taking a look at where the majority of the diesel-related sudden deaths took place, Europe seems to be having 11,500 deaths, China is second with 10,700 deaths, and the US had 1,100 diesel emissions-related deaths. So what’s the option? The research study from Nature spells a lot of doom-and-gloom if next-generation emissions standards aren’t fulfilled. It predicts approximately 174,000 premature deaths in 2040 if automakers do not get their act together.
However, if makers embrace and enforce harder standards, they “could almost get rid of real-world diesel-related NOx emissions” as per the report. They highly recommend “implementing Euro VI standards where they have not yet been embraced for heavy-duty automobiles.”