ULSD Fuel Will Save Lives, May Cost More Web source: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-03-10T164453Z_01_N10351848_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENERGY-DIESEL-ASTHMA.xml Cleaner diesel standard seen cutting asthma attacks By Janet McGurty NEW YORK (Reuters) - Maligned as the fuel behind surging rates of asthma and other diseases in the United States, diesel will get an overhaul this year that could save thousands of lives, experts say. New federal regulations, which take effect in June, will reduce the amount of sulfur in diesel to less than 15 parts per million (ppm) from 500 ppm, cutting tailpipe emissions from trucks, buses and cars that use the distillate fuel. The reduction in sulfur content, which is classified as a "fine particle," has energy experts fearing a spike in diesel prices as pipelines and refineries face increased spending and logistic issues in producing and transporting the new fuel. But health experts say it will lower health costs for Americans, who since the 1980s have suffered through a surge in asthma, a respiratory disease that often targets the young and the elderly. "We know that fine particle pollution is the most lethal air pollutant, tied to a whole range of health problems," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, a non-profit environmental watchdog. The law, which was passed in 1997 during the Clinton presidency and affirmed by the current Bush administration, is expected to prevent the premature deaths of 8,300 people per year, along with about 5,500 cases of chronic bronchitis and more than 360,000 asthma attacks, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Plus, the new standard will help prevent 1.5 million lost work days, 7,100 hospital visits and 2,400 emergency room visits for asthma each year, the EPA said. "In other words, the ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel is one of the most positive and significant public health protection moves from the EPA in years," said O'Donnell. KEEPING YOUNG LUNGS HEALTHY While the new regulation will reduce sulfur emissions directly related to the fuel, it will also enable pollution controls which can remove 90 percent of diesel soot. "The real benefits come when additional pollution control technologies are added to engines, either during manufacture through retrofitting of existing vehicles and off-road equipment," said Robert Laumbach, assistant professor of environmental and occupational medicine at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Not only is asthma the nation's most common chronic disorder, it targets children and elderly. While children make up only 25 percent of the population, they represent 40 percent of all asthma cases. And the disease has far outpaced the population, growing 70 percent from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. School buses are major sources of pollution, and children who ride them face 5 to 15 times as much particulates inside the buses compared with outside, studies show. Laumbach said New Jersey recently passed a law that requires retrofitting of school buses and municipal vehicles is scheduled to go into effect over the next few years. "This should result in more rapid health benefits, especially for children who ride school buses, who are among the most heavily exposed population," he said. OLD VULNERABLE AS WELL Hospital admissions among the over-65 population due to heart failure increased every time particulate pollution increased, studies show. "Most of these admissions occurred the same day as the rise in fine particle concentration, which suggests a short lag time between the change in pollution and the subjects' response," said Francesca Dominici of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and lead author of a four-year study of Medicare enrollees. The study was presented, along with other testimony, on Wednesday in Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco by an advisory panel asking the EPA to follow their recommendations for setting a new more stringent annual limit on soot pollution. But the EPA decided against implementing the recommended levels of 13 or 14 micrograms of particulates per cubic meter of air, keeping the current level of 15 micrograms per cubic feet to the dismay of the advisory panel. According to information from the American Lung Association, the EPA proposal would cut premature deaths to about 3,600. But this number would be cut by almost half using the expert panel recommendations. "There is still time for the EPA to do the right thing," said O'Donnell.
Can you say propoganda? I call BS. There are over 240 million people in this country and they say that the new low sulfur diesel fuel will prevent only 8,300 people from dying prematurely. I wonder what other health problems and life style issues those 8,300 people had. Also the young kids riding school busses being 5-15 times more likley to have asthma is a crock!! How long are those kids on the bus each day? Not much when compared to a long haul trucker. Hell, I spend more time in my diesel truck than most kids going to school. And what about the poor farmer that spends 16 hrs a day in a tractor or combine? I think it's a scam for the oil companies to stick it to the general public so they can line thier pockets with our hard earned green backs! If the people are that concerned with their health, then mabye they should put down the twinkies and bon-bons, get off of their a**es and do something other than watching Jerry Springer and Oprah! I could continue the rant, but I'll spare you.
Yeah, I'm on the fence of this issue as well. But, seeing as how my next truck is gonna be a diesel, I'm watching what happens to you guys trucks very closely. I believe the last 4wheel&offroad had a pretty good article on the subject. My major question about it all was more concerning how the USLD was going to affect farm equipment. Will standard grade red diesel still be available, or is ALL diesel going to the USLD? The price increase on these guys is really gonna put a hurtin on the farmers around here. They're going to have to bump up irrigation like you wouldn't believe to counter-act all this damn drought. Also kinda worried about how quickly the new stuff is going to affect the pre-'07 trucks. Sure, it may cause no kinda problems now, but after 2,3, or even 10 years worth of use what are the engines gonna be like? I've pretty well put off buying a new truck now until after the new rigs come out. /ranton Oh yeah... when was the last time any of you guys rode in the newer school buses? I've always gone on trips with my kids as a parent volunteer and I can honestly say it is the worst form of transportation on earth. And we put our kids through this daily? Not my family. Every trip that has required me to ride the bus with the children has made me physically ill. I'm a gearhead. I know what exhaust fumes are. I know what the engines SHOULD smell like. I also know what air quality I'd expect my children to breathe. I'd rather my kids ride in a bus filled with smokers than one of the school buses built nowadays. The exhaust systems aren't the problem, nor is the diesel or the amount of sulfer. These cheap, rattle-trap excuses for a vehicle are poorly sealed and have little or no ventilation with the exception of the windows, which coincidentally draw more exhaust air into the cab than they expel. All the body seams are leaky and the floor gets EXTREMELY hot over the exhaust pipes (hot enough to burn feet only wearing sandals). The fact that there still are no seat belts is minor to me compared to the other conditions of the bus. /rantoff
They always have to tie it to saving some number of lives saved. That gives them the ability to respond to claims of unreasonable cost with "How can you put a price on even ONE human life?!" With everyone that was supposed to be saved by the unleaded gas, drug control (medicinal and recreational, inlcuding alcohol and tobacco), seat belts, air bags, anti-slip surfaces, warning tags, and on and on and on... Nobody would ever die again...
Sounds live Volvos new adds just a ton of bs-Hey where I work we have non skid surfaces and have to wear oil and slip resistant boota guess what we still slip:doah: guess nobody told OSHA that either
Sounds like B.S. to me too. So are these 8,000 or so lives we're saving gonna pay for the increase in price. And like J.D. mentioned I bet farmer's don't have and increased percentage of problems related to diesel fuel. I'm just glad I don't live in California, seems once you cross the state line everything starts causing cancer.:doah: :stir:
I have seen quite a few packages that had a disclaimer on them saying "the contents of this package contain a chemical which is known in the state of California to cause cancer." What the hell does California know that the rest of the country doesn't? Maybe all of the smog has actually activated some extra brain cells making the people of California smarter than the rest of the country. Look at all the social and economic progress they have made!!
Seems like most everything has that disclaimer on it now days. And I don't think it is what they know that we don't but what they think they know.:stir:
