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Say No! to Diesel Vehicles

  • 30/05/2000

The concern over air pollution in Japan is based on some truly alarming findings of research in Japan. "A compound discovered in the exhaust fumes of diesel engines may be the most strongly carcinogenic ever analysed.' This was reported by the UK publication New Scientist in its October 25, 1997 issue. The report also pointed out that the chemical, a nitrated polyaromatic hydrocarbon called 3-nitrobenzanthrone, could be responsible for the large number of cancer cases in cities.

These were the results of a research team led by Hitomi Suzuki, a chemist at Kyoto University. "I personally believe that the recent increase in the number of lung cancer patients in vehicle-congested areas is closely linked with respirable carcinogens such as 3-nitrobenzanthrone,' said Suzuki. The researchers used the Ames test, a standard measure of the cancer-causing potential of toxic chemicals, to measure the number of mutations the compound caused in DNA of standard bacteria strains. Even the second most carcinogenic compound known to humankind, 1,8-dinitropyrene, is also found in diesel exhaust.

In an effort to combat the persistent air pollution problem in Tokyo, the metropolitan government launched an unprecedented campaign in August 1999 to "Say No! to Diesel Vehicles'. The controversial campaign, which raised the ire of vehicle manufacturers, was launched by Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo. The metropolitan government began calling upon its citizens to boycott diesel vehicles the exhaust from which was the "single biggest polluter of Tokyo's skies' (see

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