Car giants ‘carried out diesel fume tests on humans and monkeys’
‘Investigated in detail’
GERMAN car makers have been accused of funding tests in which humans and monkeys were deliberately exposed to diesel fumes.
The experiments were carried out by a research group jointly backed by Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes owner Daimler.
The revelation has brought condemnation from German chancellor Angela Merkel while one of her ministers called the tests ‘abominable’.
One study measured the effects of inhaling toxic nitrogen oxide gases, one of the components of diesel fumes, on 25 healthy human beings at a German university hospital.
Details of the experiments, carried out in 2012, were exposed by German newspapers the Sueddeutsche and Stuttgarter Zeitung.
That revelation came just days after the New York Times wrote that the same organisation car- ried out tests on monkeys in the United States in 2014.
That newspaper said staff from the European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector locked ten monkeys into airtight chambers and made them breathe diesel fumes from a VW Beetle while they watched cartoons.
A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: ‘These tests on monkeys or even humans are in no way ethically justified.
‘The indignation felt by many people is completely understandable.’
Environment minister Barbara Hendricks called the experiments ‘abominable’ and said she was shocked that scientists had conducted them.
Nitrogen oxides have been linked to asthma, lung diseases and heart attacks. Scientists estimate they contribute to the premature deaths of more than 40,000 Britons every year. However, the researchers said they detected ‘no significant effects’ from the inhaled nitrogen dioxide – the most toxic form of nitrogen oxide and commonly found in diesel exhausts, according to a summary of the human study published in 2016.
It remains unclear what the car makers knew about the nature of the experiments.
Volkswagen, which also owns the Seat, Audi and Skoda brands, apologised for the aniemissions mal testing. It ordered an immediate inquiry into the allegations.
Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said: ‘I will do everything possible to ensure that this matter is investigated in detail.’
VW is fighting to restore its reputation after it admitted in 2015 that it had fitted 11million cars with software which allowed them to cheat diesel tests in laboratories. Around 1.2million cars have been recalled in the UK as a result of the scandal.
The company, along with BMW and Daimler, tried to distance itself from the diesel fume studies.
A VW spokesman said: ‘We believe that the scientific methods used to conduct the study were wrong and that it would have been better not to undertake it at all. Animal testing is completely inconsistent with our corporate standards.’
A Daimler spokesman said: ‘We are appalled by the extent of the studies and their implementation.’
BMW said it ‘did not participate in the mentioned studies’.
While it was the research group that commissioned the tests on humans on monkeys, the carmakers hoped its work would defend diesel’s environmental reputation.
The car companies decided in late 2016 to dissolve the research group and it closed last year.