Air Pollution From Motor Vehicles

Contributions by Surhid Gautam and Lit-Mian Chan. This book presents a state-of-the art review of vehicle emission standards and regulations and provides a synthesis of worldwide experience with vehicle emission control technologies and their applications in both industrial and developing countries. Topics covered include: * The two principal international systems of vehicle emission standards: those of North America and Europe * Test procedures used to verify compliance with emissions standards and to estimate actual emissions * Engine and aftertreatment technologies that have been developed to enable new vehicles to comply with emission standards, as well as the cost and other impacts of these technologies * An evaluation of measures for controlling emissions from in-use vehicles * The role of fuels in reducing vehicle emissions, the benefits that could be gained by reformulating conventional gasoline and diesel fuels, the potential benefits of alternative cleaner fuels, and the prospects for using hydrogen and electric power to run motor vehicles with ultra-low or zero emissions. This book is the first in a series of publications on vehicle-related pollution and control measures prepared by the World Bank in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme to underpin the Bank's overall objective of promoting transport that is environmentally sustainable and least damaging to human health and welfare.

By the year 2000 the world vehicle population is predicted to be about 686 million, and in the United Kingdom transport consumes over 30 million tonnes of fuel a year.

"The combination of scientific and institutional integrity represented by this book is unusual. It should be a model for future endeavors to help quantify environmental risk as a basis for good decisionmaking." â€"William D. Ruckelshaus, from the foreword. This volume, prepared under the auspices of the Health Effects Institute, an independent research organization created and funded jointly by the Environmental Protection Agency and the automobile industry, brings together experts on atmospheric exposure and on the biological effects of toxic substances to examine what is knownâ€"and not knownâ€"about the human health risks of automotive emissions.

Automotive air pollution will intensify with increasing urbanization and the rapid pace of motorization in developing countries. Without effective measures to curb air pollution, some 300-400 million city dwellers in developing countries will become exposed to unhealthy and dangerous levels of air pollution by the end of the century. Administratively simple policies that encourage clean fuels and better traffic management are the most promising approach to controlling vehicle pollutant emissions in developing countries.