Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
Scientists have estimated the effects of diesel emissions from Volkswagen’s deliberate vehicle cheating on U.S. emission tests.
“Abstract “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued a notice of violation against Volkswagen (VW) for installing a defective device in certain models of diesel cars to circumvent emission tests for nitrogen oxides (NOx). We quantified the health and economic impacts of extra NOx emissions attributable to non-compliant vehicles in the U.S. using the EPA’s Co-Benefits Risk Assessment model. We estimated that the total extra NOx emitted over one year of operation would result in 5 to 50 premature deaths, 687 to 17,526 work days with restricted activity, and economic costs of $43,479,189 to $423,268,502, based on various assumptions regarding emission scenarios and risks. This study highlights the potential impacts of VW vehicles’ lack of compliance on the health and well-being of the U.S. population.”
Note: This is based on one year of operation. The deception took place over a decade.
For more on VW criminal deception see http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/09/09/business/09reuters-volkswagen-emissions.html“VW has so far set aside about $18 billion to cover the cost of vehicle refits and a settlement with U.S. authorities, but analysts think the bill could rise much further as a result of lawsuits and regulatory penalties.” See http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2016/09/21/business/21reuters-volkswagen-emissions-lawsuit.html
Info Graphic see http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/business/international/vw-diesel-emissions-scandal-explained.html?ref=international
Short History of Air Pollution
This is part of a 50 year war on automotive emissions that have harmed people’s health in the U.S., damaged people worldwide, and the planet. See
1. As a whistle blower in 1971, I was fired from EPA trying to warn that emission testing by the Nixon EPA was being rigged to benefit auto companies under Administrator William Ruckelshaus.
2. A recent MIT study found that all automotive emissions, not just diesel emissions, were estimated to be resulting in 53,000 early deaths each year in the U.S.A. today.
3. Last year, President Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom to William Ruckelshaus. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/blog/blog-medal/
Last week, on September 15, 2016, I commented on a NY Times article “Pardon Snowden” on whistle blowing. I received the NY Times link athttp://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/opinion/pardon-edward-snowden.html?comments#permid=19799984:19805678
I had made the three points above about my experience as a whistle blower. Within a couple of hours my comments were recommended by more than 150 readers. One reader replied saying that my comments were “the scariest post” he had ever read.
Then the NY Times removed my comments and those of the people who had replied to my comments.
Lou Lombardo
