Buses and Taxis Kill 3,000 Londoners Per Year. Or Not.

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

And another thing. In this internet world of ours, what media outlet would announced the findings of a controversial report without linking to the damn thing? The BBC, for one. “The city’s air quality is well below EU targets and is having a ‘severe impact’ on the NHS, the London Assembly’s Environment Committee said. The research also found that emissions from diesel vehicles remains the main source of pollution. It urged the mayor to take more ‘bold action’ on the issue.” Why is it that whenever a political quango (or the media) calls for “bold action” I want to run the other way? Turns out the headline figure comes from here: “Government estimates suggest that air pollution contributes to around 1,000 premature deaths in London each year, but recent data from the European Environment Agency suggests that this could be closer to 3,000. However, both of these figures are estimations for London, based on calculations from UK figures, since the Committee is not aware of accurate, empirical data for London.” More specifically, here: “recent report from the European Environment Agency indicates that air pollution contributed to 650 deaths per million people in the UK in 2005. This could indicate up to 3,000 deaths for London based on its population.” Science much? Anyway, public transportation (i.e., busses) kills. Who knew?

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

More by Robert Farago

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 11 comments
  • Don1967 Don1967 on May 03, 2009

    Sing along with me the journalists' version of Billy Joel's We didn't start the fire: Killer buses on their way Global warming, Y2K Swine got flu, people too Apocalypses pay my way

  • Fincar1 Fincar1 on May 03, 2009

    To see how ridiculous this is, think for just a minute about what the situation would be if all the diesel-powered vehicles in London were instead powered by gasoline. Think that would make a huge difference in emissions? Probably only incremental, but fuel costs would be higher.... Not only that, but think of all the nasty, bad carbon dioxide that Londoners would exhale if they had to run or walk to get where they were going. Dear me....

  • Patrickj Patrickj on May 03, 2009

    This figure of 3000 premature deaths does not surprise me at all. Of course, the truest comparisons are years of life lost, and asthma rates among children rather than this single number. A recent visit to London convinced me that the air is polluted in a way that large U.S. cities not in mountain bowls are not. For all the claims of modern clean diesel vehicles, even the newest VWs seem to have the back bumpers covered with soot. Gasoline-powered vehicles have the advantage that they end up stopped on the side of the road relatively quickly once they become gross polluters. Diesels seem to belch on for ages longer.

  • Chuckgoolsbee Chuckgoolsbee on May 04, 2009
    Richard Chen: "Make that diesel buses kill, as well as other diesel vehicles." Step into a locked, sealed room with an idling gasoline vehicle, and an idling Diesel vehicle and see which one actually KILLS. I know which one will kill, and it isn't the Diesel. --chuck
Next