New United Nations Paper Finds Role of Diesel Road Vehicles to Particulate Matter To Be Small & Declining in Europe & U.S.

- Diesel Technology Forum says UNECE paper corrects misconceptions about diesel

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A new paper issued by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) concluded that diesel road vehicles were the cause of only a small percentage of particulate matter – PM 2.5 and PM10 - in Europe and the United States compared to economic sectors like the commercial, institutional and household sectors.

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UNECE is one of five regional commissions of the United Nations.

"From the data and facts mentioned above, we conclude with a high degree of reliability that it is misleading to claim that people's exposure to diesel engines of road motor vehicles is the cause of increased risk of lung cancer," UNECO concluded in the new paper entitled "Diesel Engine Exhausts: Myths and Realities".

Link to UNECE paper: http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/main/wp5/publications/Diesel_Engines_Exhausts_Myths_and_Realities_2014.pdf

"Eighty three percent of particulate matters emissions in European Union countries (EEA, 2012a) and 97 percent in the United States of America (EPA 2013) and Canada is generated by other economic sectors, mainly the commercial, institutional and household sector.

"Therefore, the claim that emissions from diesel engine exhausts from road transport are the main cause of lung cancer in humans needs to be seriously challenged.  It does not mean however, that measures to improve the environmental performance of the transport sector can stop.  On the contrary, they must continue and in an aggressively well targeted way," the UNECE paper stated.

The UNECE paper also states: "Diesel engines are currently at the heart of economic growth and off all economic activity and, therefore, it is not feasible to replace and eliminate them at this stage."

"The development of new clean diesel technology for passenger vehicles, trucks, buses, construction and farm engines have reduced particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions by more than 90 percent in the past two decades," said Allen Schaeffer, the Executive Director of the Diesel Technology Forum (http://www.dieselforum.org/).

"The UNECE paper provides an important perspective often overlooked in the environmental debate - that diesel vehicle engines have dramatically improved their emissions and are not a significant cause of PM emissions in developed countries," Schaeffer said.

For more information go to: http://www.dieselforum.org/news/new-united-nations-paper-finds-role-of-diesel-in-economic-development-large-and-contribution-of-road-vehicles-to-particulate-matter-to-be-small-and-declining-in-europe-and-u-s-

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Allen Schaeffer
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Contact: Steve Hansen +1-301-668-7230 shansen@dieselforum.org