Dozens of Britons dying due to pollution from rigged Volkswagens

BRITONS are dying because of the Volkswagen emissions scandal with dozens killed from fumes travelling across the North Sea from Germany and “many times” more killed by pollution from cars on UK roads, researchers suggest.

Between 2008 and 2015 Volkswagen rigged diesel cars using “defeat devices” so they could pass stringent envi- ronmental tests in the laboratory. More than one million VW cars in Britain went on to pump deadly nitrogen dioxide into the atmosphere at banned quantities while on the open road.

Environmental researchers at MIT found that based on the 2.6 million cars sold in Germany alone, 2,600 people will die up to 10 years early even if a complete recall is completed by the end of this year.

Yet only 1,100 of the deaths will actu- ally occur in Germany, with more than 60 per cent of the premature mortalities affecting neighbouring countries, including Britain, Poland, France and the Czech Republic because pollution spreads on the wind.

The team estimates that 30 people will die in Britain from fumes from across the North Sea, but said the final death toll could be “many times” greater. If the research was extrapolated to Britain’s 1.2 million VWs, more than 450 people may die as a result, although pollution in the UK is mitigated because of our island geography.

“Pollution doesn’t care about political boundaries; it just goes straight past,” said study co-author Steven Barrett, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.

“Thus, a car in Germany can easily have significant impacts in neighbouring countries, especially in densely populated areas such as the European continent. We estimate that about 30 early deaths in the UK are attributable to the excess VW emissions in Germany. If the impact of UK emissions were added to this then the figure would be very significantly higher – possibly many times higher given the additional million affected vehicles in the UK.

“Great Britain is an island so emissions from the UK will likely cause fewer deaths per ton of nitrogen oxide than in Germany. “But it’s remarkable that emis- sions as far a way as Germany can contribute to UK air quality degradation.”

VW claims to have fixed 470,000 cars in the UK although it insists that vehicles in Britain never had defeat devices and were being recalled to give drivers “peace of mind”. However last month MPs accused VW’s UK boss Paul Willis of “lies” when he repeated this at the transport select committee.

The research was published in Environmental Research Letters.