For those who looak at diesel with a smile thinking the get more mileage.... Report: Diesel fumes stress your brain Posted on Tuesday 11 March 2008 Diesel fueled cars are already associated with the negative image of heavy trucks clogging the air with their dark and sooty exhaust plumes, and a new study only goes further to damage it’s reputation. Dutch scientists have found that breathing diesel exhaust fumes can trigger a response in the brain that can have damaging long-term effects on basic brain functions. Studies in the past have already shown that small particles of soot in diesel exhaust can travel from the nose and lodge in the brain, but this is the first time researchers have found actual adverse effects on brain activity. “We can only speculate what these effects may mean for the chronic exposure to air pollution encountered in busy cities where the levels of such soot particles can be very high,†said Zuyd University researcher Paul Borm in an interview with Reuters. “It is conceivable that the long-term effects of exposure to traffic nanoparticles may interfere with normal brain function and information processing.†Scientists put ten volunteers in a room filled with exhaust from a diesel engine (comparable with levels of an urban environment) for an hour and found that after just 30 minutes brain wave patterns displayed a ‘stress’ response. To make matters worse, researchers also said the small particles in the exhaust are also linked with respiratory and cardiovascular disease. This is worrying considering that carmakers around the world are trying to increase the number of diesel models in their fleets, and it will be interesting to see if new emissions regulations will have a genuine effect on air quality in the near future.
This is worrying considering that carmakers around the world are trying to increase the number of diesel models in their fleets, and it will be interesting to see if new emissions regulations will have a genuine effect on air quality in the near future. thats wy i am against diesels of any kind also hybrid
Did they repeat the experiment with gasoline exhaust? It contains nanoparticles and the pollutants of diesel. It just has the advantage of a scrubber system, which ultra low sulfur fuel will allow to be implemented in diesels.
Exactly. That pic is quite misleading. Most of the "dank" is probably the result of dirty coal fired plants and complete lack of burning restrictions etc. Diesel can be much cleaner than most people think. Like anything it just has to be done well and enforced. The other big contributer in the picture I bet is 2 cycle engines. Jakarta has a huge air quality problem that is heavy contributed to by 2 cycle mopeds.
Catalytic converters will fix this. Lead in gasoline was much more harmful: it's why people voted Republican all those years.
Fact is - Europe is trying to get rid of diesels and USA wants to start with them . Even if catalyzed diesels still produce fine particles of soot (PM10). PM10 irritates the breathing apparatus and lungs, causing asma on some patients. Some diesels have DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) to hold back the PM10. when full, the drives has to go in a highway, keep the car above 2000 rpm for 10 minutes so that the system can burn the PM10 in PM1 and PM2.5 (much finer soot). If the driver is stuck in town and does not obey the enging will go in protection mode and the user has to visit a dealer to have his filter cleaned out and his oil changed bcause diesel and soot entered the lube system. There are reports that this can happen every 500 km. These polluants are not yet monitored but it is proven that such fine soot goes past the lungs and deposits in the internal orgars (kidney, liver, etc.). The day that this minute particles are monitored I'm supe that diesels will be banned altogether.
Those extra fine, possibly more harmful, particles being put out by a filtered diesel are also being put out by gasoline engines. They aren't soot free.
As ShellyT has already pointed out, gasoline vehicles also produce particulates, it is just that particulates smaller than P10 are not measured in ECE, CARB, or EPA emissions testing. So if diesel will be banned for particulates <P10 then gasoline vehicles will be as well. The experiment conducted by the Dutch scientists does nothing to defend the exhaust from gasoline vehicles. All the study proves is that breathing diesel exhaust fumes is unhealthy. I don't think you will find many people that will argue against that finding. I also suspect that you will have a equally unhealthy result if you where to repeat the experiment with exhaust from a gasoline vehicle. The difference may be that they can't because the amount of CO produced in gasoline exhaust may kill or severely injure the test subjects.
Hey, jhinton's back. Good to see you again. I see that you're in Birmingham now. Did you move? It's always good to have you to balance out the anti diesel crowd.
OK, imagine yourself as an experimental subject. I would exhibit a stress response in a lot less that 30 minutes if closed in a room with diesel fumes.:faint:
I honestly believe that one of the worst (if not the absolute worst) occupations would be as a toll-collector at the (Oakland -S.F.) Bay Bridge. After 4 hours, you would have breathed a lifetimes worth of soot (diesel and gasoline).
I have a fan club! I never really left, but I've been quite busy with the new job so I haven't been posting nearly as much as I did last summer when I was blissfully unemployed. Yes, I moved to the Birmingham area last May. I actually live in Helena, a crappy little suburban town about 15 miles south of Birmingham. Helena somehow managed to get listed as one of the 100 best places to live by Money magazine. I now know that Money knows nothing about what makes a good place to live.! I try to give some information to balance out the outdated diesel information that is presented so often here on Prius Chat. However, I'm getting pretty tired of repeating myself every couple of months. Maybe I should save a generic post?
we don't have lead in gas for 10 years now.. its bean replaced with a replacement something \ yes i also hope diesels will be banned. only for the fact when i drive my bike i really don't like to be behind a diesel ( even a modern one ) it really stinks i even prefer to be behind a 1990 gas engine. its less stressful on my lungs. ( with less stressful i mean that i can feel less breathing problems ) but are gas engine not less soot producing then diesel? and if ty try to make diesels particles smaller with part filters will there not be more smaller part. in the diesel exhaust! so what your telling is that the CO of a gas engine is that higher that it Will kill and the diesel so much lower. don't think that deferents is that high really do you have numbers?
I believe they are, but I didn't have much luck finding numbers for comparison. I did find a study between gasoline and natural gas or propane. The actual gaseous state gas was better. That's one of the ironies of regulation. To reduce the particles in diesel exhaust, the manufacturers wanted to put a basic filter in. Something like the air intake filter. CARB required that emission equipment be maintance free though. Thus the particle filters that burn the particles into nanoparticles. So instead of a system that removed the particles from the air, with some work on the owners part, the law gave us a system that made the pollution worse.
