Dear Care For Crash Victims Community Members:
I came to Washington, DC in 1966 with high hopes of doing something about controlling air pollution and joined the U.S. Public Health Service, Division of Air Pollution.
Landmarks in automotive air pollution control that I was privileged to work on are at https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/1970s-polution-control-efforts/
Beginning in the late 1970s I worked on auto safety at NHTSA (with one year at IIHS) with hopes of reducing deaths and serious injuries sustained in crashes.
Looking back over the past 50 years one can see both progress and the urgent need to continue making progress in reducing vehicle violence from all causes.
* Lead is now out of gasoline and no longer causing lead poisoning in children.
* Vehicles now have catalysts and emissions of automotive pollutants have been reduced – but not nearly enough to protect public health and stop climate change.
Air pollution: 50 Years Later
An MIT study of early deaths due to all air pollutants and due to just automotive pollutants found:
“The group tracked ground-level emissions from sources such as industrial smokestacks, vehicle tailpipes, marine and rail operations, and commercial and residential heating throughout the United States, and found that such air pollution causes about 200,000 early deaths each year. Emissions from road transportation are the most significant contributor, causing 53,000 premature deaths, followed closely by power generation, with 52,000.” See
Climate Change & Governmental Changing For The Worse – How Did This Happen?
Legal Reader has kindly published (pro bono) an article of mine on how, over the past 50 years, the American people have become victims of corporate supremacists.
Nader, Chomsky and others have tried to inform and warn people over the past 50 years with limited resources, but the corporate media has not. Now it may be too little, too late, for too many people – but we must try. (See Requiem for the American Dream video)
I have created Trump Death Clocks to help people see about how many American people are dying from air pollution under the Trump Administration. Not included are deaths from climate change contributions such as hurricanes and wildfires. See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/trump-clocks/
Lou Lombardo
