Public Health Impact
The direct health impacts of vehicle emissions, including diesel exhaust from cars and trucks, are a concern. Nitrogen oxides (NOx) contribute to smog, and smog contributes to more than 400,000 hospital visits each year for conditions related to asthma and respiratory and heart diseases - all of which have been linked to diesel exhaust.
Commitment to reducing total emissions from our engines today to the lowest possible levels is our responsibility as executives, as parents and as human beings.
According to the Clean Air Task Force, more than 75% of all Americans live near urban areas where traffic congestion and concentrated sources of diesel exhaust create health problems.
- Air pollution exposure is associated with premature death
- • Reaching the California particulate matter (PM) and ozone standards would annually prevent about 8,800 premature deaths, or 3.7% of all deaths
- • These premature deaths shorten lives by an average of 14 years
- Air pollution exposures contribute to hospitalizations
- • Attaining the California PM and ozone standards would annually prevent approximately1:
- - 6,100 hospital admissions for respiratory disease
- - 1,500 hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease
- Air pollution contributes to respiratory illness and cancer
- • Attaining the California PM and ozone standards would annually prevent about:
- - 210,000 cases of asthma and lower respiratory symptoms
- - 17,000 cases of acute bronchitis
- - 250 excess cancer cases per year in California2
[1] California Air Resource Board (CARB) - CARB 2003a, CARB 2005
[2] CARB 2000