Category: Health

Private school run in south London linked to 27% rise in air pollution

Parents driving children to private schools is associated with a 27% increase in air pollution and congestion in a south London street, according to campaigners who are calling for private schools to make greater use of sustainable transport. Bus times were also affected, with commuters facing longer delays on local buses at morning peak times on the […]

Gigantic SUVs are a public health threat. Why don’t we treat them like one?

Over the last half-century, American sedans and station wagons have been replaced by increasingly enormous SUVs and pickup trucks that now comprise 80 percent of new car sales, a phenomenon known as car bloat. Much like secondhand smoke, driving a gigantic vehicle endangers those who never consented to the danger they face walking, biking, or sitting inside […]

Paris: Other forms of transportation have contributed to a 40% decline in air pollution

Changes designed to encourage people to take other forms of transportation than cars have contributed to a 40% decline in air pollution. That’s because a campaign to make Paris greener, primarily by reducing its dependence on cars, has transformed it into a shining example of what many environmental activists, city planners and transit advocates say […]

Pollution from tyre wear can be 1,000 times worse than exhaust emissions, SUVs make it even worse

Tight regulation of exhaust emissions by the EU has meant that new cars emit very little particle pollution. But tyre wear pollution is unregulated and can be 1,000 times worse, finds independent real-world testing experts Emissions Analytics. Increased popularity of SUVs, larger and heavier than standard vehicles, exacerbates this problem – as does growing sales […]

Majority of UK drivers support ban on SUVs and call for Clean Air Zones in every city

The majority of British motorists want an outright ban on highly polluting vehicles, such as 4x4s and SUVs, to stop them from entering well-populated areas like town and city centres. According to a survey of 1,000 UK drivers, 59 percent said they would support a ban on larger vehicles like 4x4s, SUVs and other large […]

As their sales continue to rise, SUVs’ global CO2 emissions are nearing 1 billion tonnes

Rapidly increasing the number of electric cars on the road in place of conventional cars is a key part of reaching net zero emissions by mid-century. At the same time, SUVs require larger batteries to power them, so a growing electric SUV market would impose additional pressure on battery supply chains and further increase demand […]

SUV sales ‘cancelling out’ emissions benefits of EVs

Increased sales of electric vehicles (EVs) have “not made a dent” in transport emissions, a leading expert has said, as he called for SUVs “to be phased out of the market”. Trinity College Dublin professor in the Department of Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering, Brian Caulfield, said ever-increasing sales of SUVs, or sports utility vehicles, […]