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> Nitrogen oxides cause tens of thousands of early deaths in Europe Complete bullshit. There isn't a single death certificate in the world that lists "NOx poi
by 08-15 10y ago
> Nitrogen oxides cause tens of thousands of early deaths in Europe
Complete bullshit. There isn't a single death certificate in the world that lists "NOx poisoning" as cause of death, unless it was an industrial accident.
These numbers come from assuming that some high dose of NOx will kill you, therefore 1% of that dose kills one in a hundred. So, at least for regulatory purposes to scare people, we can take a tiny dose, multiply it by a huge number of people, and get the number of deaths.
Apparently, this is true for any chemical, such as Paracetamol. 10g of Paracetamol are reasonably likely (about 50%?) to kill you. So if 100 people take 200mg each, one of them is going to die, right? Apparently, "30 million packs" are sold each year in the UK, each containing about 10g, and somebody swallows most of it. So every year, Paracetamol kills about 15 million people in the UK. Or maybe just 5 million, if some Paracetamol is flushed down the toilet. So it takes no more than 13 years, and there nobody left in the UK to be killed by NOx.
But the UK isn't devoid of people. That's because this whole logic is bullshit, and when applied to medicine, everybody knows it. When NOx concentrations of less than a ppm are involved, it suddenly makes sense.
Dear ICCT: If you feel the need to make up bullshit like this, you are tackling a non-problem.
- throwaway729 10y agoDo you have a source on that? I thought that the numbers came from extrapolating from large population studies on the effects of air pollution (e.g. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199312093292401#t=article http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199312093292401#t=a...).
- 08-15 10y agoThe article itself cites the Guardian, who cites the European Environmental Agency, who cites REVIHAAP, which is only a review. REVIHAAP (http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/193108/REVIHAAP-Final-technical-report-final-version.pdf http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/193108/R...) mentions a lot of studies that estimate the proportionality factor between mortality and NOx concentration. This is precisely the method I described above: assume proportionality, then estimate the proportionality constant, then multiply by millions of people and get a scary number. Few studies in the REVIHAAP report cite actual concentrations, but when they do they are invariably much higher than the 20µg the EEA applies as lower cutoff. (The study you linked to doesn't include NOx. REVIHAAP itself has more inapplicable stuff, such as one study that actually looked at proximity to roads, then noted that they can't tease apart the effects of NOx, ozone, soot, etc, then proceeded to make a claim about NOx specifically anyway.)
- Dylan16807 10y agoYeah, that thing they don't actually do sure is stupid!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]