Decades of diesel use in Europe have created a public health crisis

Re:Decades of diesel use in Europe have created a public hea... by vondur on Wednesday October 09, 2019 @11:51AM (#21204337)

Do European countries not have emissions rules for their vehicles like we do here in the US? (California to be specific) The diesels here have to use a DEF solution to remove NOx emissions from them. In California, your vehicle has to pass a smog emissions test in order to be able to drive it.

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Re:Decades of diesel use in Europe have created a public hea... by Barrin92 on Wednesday October 09, 2019 @11:56AM (#21204399)

we do have emission rules and the article is very dramatic. (here's an interactive overview that gives some idea https://waqi.info/)

The air in London from my own experience is not great but it's also not much worse than in many other large cities, and it has definitely improved a lot over the last decade or two.

Other European cities at least in my experience are completely fine. I've not noticed anything that sets Berlin or Stockholm apart from American cities, definitely not to the point that'd be a reason for me to move.

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Re:Decades of diesel use in Europe have created a public hea... by rconti on Wednesday October 09, 2019 @11:54AM (#21204377)

I'm not sure, but I was curious as well. I have a 2011 X5 3.5d that has SCR and uses DEF fluid. I googled around a bit, wondering if pm2.5 was reduced using DEF, or whether the DEF was for other pollutants. I'm not sure how clean it is relative to gasoline engines in terms of particulate matter, but obviously it's better than without it.

Of course, much of the fleet in London will be older. It was shocking to me to see (in the article) how diesel vehicles had gone from 1.x million in the 90s to 12+million today.

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