Courant Editorial | Choking Commuters: "Commuting not only stinks (literally), it can make you sick, says an environmental group that studied diesel fumes in four cities.
This is bad news for a commuter state with three cities in the Top 50 exhaust list.
The good news is that 90 percent of the carcinogenic pollutants in diesel emissions can be removed from the air by retrofitting engines with filters. That's a powerful argument for investing in filters for state, local and federal fleets.
The Massachusetts-based nonprofit Clean Air Task Force looked at Boston, New York, Austin and Columbus, and found high levels of unhealthy diesel exhaust inside cars, buses and trains - four to eight times higher than outside the vehicle. But commuters on bikes and foot also inhale sickening amounts of fumes from diesel traffic. You can't escape soot.
Diesel particles can cause cancer, strokes and heart attacks and trigger serious breathing disorders.
To its credit, the state is addressing some of its emissions problems. More than half of the state's 600 CT Transit buses will have emissions filters by 2010. School buses in Bridgeport and New Haven and garbage trucks in Hartford are also getting retrofitted.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency requires new diesel trucks to have filters that reduce particle emissions. But diesel engines can last up to 30 years, so the old soot-belchers won't be off the roads any time soon.
Lawmakers have tried, but so far failed, to require all public transit and construction vehicles on state-financed projects to be outfitted with filters. The expense, at $7,000 or more per vehicle, could be spread over a few years.
It shouldn't be put off."
