Engines of the devil, or not?

Since Agarwal8217;s article is itself based on a larger 35-page report prepared by him for CSE, it8217;s best to concentrate on what the report has to say, for now. Broadly, the point CSE makes, by citing various other studies and judgments, is that diesel engines emit high amount of particulate matter8217; PM all of Delhi8217;s PM emissions come from diesel-engines, and this has been found to be, on occasions, as high as 17 times the permissible level. PM, according to CSE, is carcinogenic on August 27, 1998, the California Air Res-ources Board declared it a toxic air contaminant, or one that causes cancer. Other agencies such as the US Environment Protection Agency, CS-E says, have also identified particulate matter as a cause of lung cancer.

Agarwal then goes on to make another sho-cking assertion: that the finer the emissions of particulate matter get, usually a result of more stringent emi-ssion norms such as Euro-I and Euro-II, the more hazardous they get. He says that these finer emissions go down deeper into the lungs, but still retain their essential character, of being coated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAH which is highly carcinogenic. And, then, using a dexterous combination, possibly excessively so, of statistics, newspaper articles, and personal knowledge, Agarwal and Narain even put a figure to the cancer-related and pulmonary death tolls due to diesel emissions.

Unfortunately, the notice sent by Te-lco8217;s advocates doesn8217;t leave us any the wis-er about the veracity of these claims. The advocate8217;s notice, for instance, says that while various others such as Mercedes Be-nz India produce diesel vehicles, the article in question has pictures of only a Tata Sumo and Tata Sierra, thereby implying the Tatas were the only culprits. Now surely that doesn8217;t leave us any the wiser on the facts of the matter.

It says the title implies Telco is manufacturing engines of the devil8217; with a sinister design to harm the health of people; that in spite of knowing the ill-effects of diesel, Telco was deliberately ignoring various norms; that Telco engines did not meet required emission norms; and so on.

So, do diesel engines have a problem, are their emissions intrinsically cancer-inducing, especially if concentrated in small geographical areas? And why doesn8217;t Telco just take on Agarwal by factually rebutting his claims? Does the absence of this, automatically vindicate his findings?

To be honest, one doesn8217;t know, and that8217;s probably why Telco hasn8217;t tried to rebut Agarwal on his facts8217;, but attacked the anti-Telco slants instead. Unlike in the case of the vastly over-researched tobacco, not enough has been done to ascertain the correlation, if any, between diesel emissions and cancer; much less a mathematical equation that can be used to calculate the cost-benefit ratio of using diesel 8212; diesel is much cheaper than petrol and, at an individual level, it makes sense to use it. Incidentally, it8217;s obvious the Supreme Court didn8217;t buy the diesel-is-carcinogenic argument since it didn8217;t ban diesel vehicles, but asked for tighter emission norms despite Agarwal8217;s claim that this would only make things worse.

Interestingly, even a body such as the Central Pollution Control Board whose business it is to study such matters, has not come up with a specific answer, other than pointing out that Delhi8217;s particulate matter problem is due to diesel engines. Moreover, as the diesel-engine producers will tell you, petrol-engines aren8217;t exactly safe either, when it comes to pollution and related effects on pulmonary diseases and cancer. Petrol, for instance, has a much higher benzene-level than diesel in India, the ratio is around 3:1 and benzene is a carcinogenic. Petrol-engines in India, a TERI study points out, despite catalytic converters, spew four times the carbon monoxide diesel ones do that aggravates heart disorders, affects the nervous system and lowers the oxygen carrying capacity of blood. Touche!While scoring a counterpoint8217;s probably good enough for the defensive diesel producers, it8217;s not good enough for the country. Clearly a lot more detailed research needs to be done on auto-pollution, especially for the heavily-polluted metros in Delhi, every third patient admitted to hospitals has acute respiratory problems. While Agarwal and Narain are probably guilty of spreading panic with their limited8217; studies, it would be tragic if Telco8217;s actions put a halt to genuine research, vital before any credible steps can be taken to tackle the enormous problem.