It’s Official: Greener Cars Have Helped Improve LA’s Air Quality

[Mr. Sparkle]

Given the length of time the U.S. Government is taking to set new gas mileage standards for 2025, you’d be forgiven for thinking the only benefit from driving a high gas-mileage car is the savings you make at the pump. You’d be wrong. Driving high gas mileage cars equates to lower tailpipe emissions, less air pollution, and a healthier population. And now there’s data to prove it.

According to the latest study from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) -- (via TreeHugger) -- air pollution from car exhausts is down by 98 percent compared to the 1960s. Although gasoline use in LA is almost triple that of what it was in the 1960s, the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air has dropped from around 100 parts per billion to just 2 parts per billion.

Between 2002 and 2010 alone, the amount of VOCs in the air of LA halved. Of course, VOCs aren’t the only pollution to come from an exhaust. As the study points out, however, VOCs are a major cause of ground-level ozone, which not only causes smog, but can cause respiratory diseases. Since its enactment in 1963, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act, and its various amendments, has tackled air quality, legislating on emissions from everything from factories to airplanes and the automotive industry.

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1078711_its-official-greener-cars-have-helped-improve-las-air-quality

[kestrel91316]

1. Our air is MUCH MUCH cleaner than it was 30, and even 20 years ago.

Running city buses on natural gas instead of diesel has also helped a lot.

[JohnnyRingo]

2. I have a friend who has lived there for 25 years.

When I went out to visit him a couple years ago he pointed out mountains that he didn't know were there until recently. California's strict laws governing emissions has definitely had a positive effect that anyone can see. I don't think one has to be a scientist to notice the difference.

As an aside, many people don't know how new designs are tested for emissions. The subject car is placed in an airtight compartment and emissions are detected from everywhere. This is why cars now have sealed fuel systems that don't allow vapors to escape, and gasket technology has advanced to the point that engines no longer get a coating of oily sludge with age, only dusty from road dirt.

It's a fact that a new Dodge Neon puts out fewer emissions at idle than a 1965 Mustang with the engine off.