Air pollution kills thousands each year yet car companies blithely ignore emissions limits
It’s dirty work. At one point Fuller and the scientist Don Stedman lie on deckchairs on a roadside for two days, pointing l a s e rs a t c a r ex h a u s t s to test nitrogen oxide emissions. Stedman lets out “a whoop with every result” as their tests confirm that the newest diesel cars and vans are producing the most NO2. It confirms that car companies have been lying, gaming the diesel exhaust limits. But it’s a sad “gotcha” moment, because no one’s listening.
When Fuller travels to Paris for an air pollution workshop to confront the motor industry, there are “more people on the stage than on the audience” and when he confronts a vehicle engineer, the Frenchman laughs in his face.
Fuller, though, has an accessible style. “You will not need a degree in chemistry or physics to understand this book”, he writes, and he’s right, but it is still hard to swallow. It’s the size, not the number, of tiny particles in the air that causes problems. The Clean Air Act 1956 largely solved the smog problem, but left a less obvious one unchecked. Particles in modern air pollution are smaller even than pollen and are breathed more deeply into our lungs. Fuller compares this to dropping a kilo bag each of apples and rice on to the kitchen floor. Drop your apples and they cover a small area, so can be easily picked up; not so with rice.
In an adult body, millions of particles in a single breath can cover the lungs, the surface area of which is the size of half a tennis court, increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
The title of the book is a misnomer; Fuller identifies not one killer, but many. Unchecked ozone emissions destroy between seven and 12 per cent of wheat yields, while household wood fires contributed to about 2.85 million deaths globally in 2015. In the UK alone, nitrogen dioxide emissions from vehicle exhausts are estimated to cause around 23,500 early deaths a year.
However, while there’s plenty of research, Fuller takes too long to reach his solution of “how we fight back”. Perhaps this is a reflection of the world we live in. Only in 2016 did the Royal College of Physicians release a report highlighting the harm that air pollution does to its patients.
Fuller finds fault with most of the “moonshot” technical solutions. There is excitement about portable air-quality sensors that detect high levels of pollution. These would discourage individuals travelling in high-risk areas, for instance, but the data they provide isn’t always accurate. Dismayingly, planting more trees in urban areas reduces air pollution by less than 5 per cent.
Our habits have to change. In 2013, 60 per cent of UK car journeys were under five miles and 40 per cent less than two miles. London’s emission zones and bans on heavy vehicles have been effective, and he heaps praise on London Mayor Sadiq Khan for implementing regulation, but it’s not enough.
Air pollution i s a k i l l e r, n o t just because we can’t see it, but because we won’t. We’ve grown used to nipping out to the shops by car, we would rather turn up the heating than put on a jumper and we don’t vote for politicians who prioritise green issues. We’re not monsters, says Fuller. But the resistance needs to be far more visible.