CARB Lists Parts of Diesel Exhaust as Health Hazard
27 August 1998
Air Resources Board Lists Specific Parts of Diesel Exhaust: Trucking, Government and Industry Win Chance to Clean Air
SACRAMENTO, Calif.--Aug. 27, 1998--The California Air Resources Board voted today to list a small part of diesel fuel exhaust - particulate matter - as a specific potential public health risk, avoiding an earlier proposed listing of whole diesel exhaust as cancer-causing, and in the process reaching what consumers of diesel fuel hail as a "fair compromise."
"This decision by the California Air Resources Board is far more specific than the Board's earlier and far more vague definitions - and it reflects the concessions we've asked for all along," said Joel D. Anderson, Executive Vice-President of the California Trucking Association. "The trucking industry believes this is a much more workable solution which provides everyone with the direction they need to continue making diesel safer and cleaner for the future. The trucking industry is very concerned about the environment and clean air - after all, our families live here, too."
Today's action by the Board included:
1. Listing particulate matter from diesel fuel exhaust (but not
whole diesel exhaust) as a Toxic Air Contaminant
2. Acknowledging that the scientific findings upon which the
conclusions were based may not accurately reflect the exposures
from today's diesel fuel and engines, as diesel fuel was
dramatically re-formulated in California in 1993, and
3. A commitment to work with industry and federal regulators to
study and clarify the health effects of modern diesel technology
using modern diesel fuel.
The Board's decision comes after years of controversy about earlier proposed reports which attempted to claim that whole diesel fuel exhaust caused cancer. However, until this year, the scientists reviewing the report did not vote to support the conclusion.
The report being adopted specifically reflects that small particles within the diesel fuel exhaust are most likely to be Toxic Air Contaminants, rather than vaguely listing whole diesel fuel exhaust as a contaminant, since the exhaust studied by CARB has not been manufactured in California for more than 5 years, and since diesel exhaust varies and changes depending upon the fuel's formulation.
"These changes bring the state into line with what the majority of the scientific community is already saying - and with what we have been saying for the last nine years," continued Anderson. "Now, it will be interesting to see what nationally-known scientists studying this same issue for the federal E.P.A. have to say when their report is released sometime in the coming weeks."
One problem today's ruling by the California Air Resources Board does not address is pollutants blown into California's air by trucks driving in from out of state and burning dirtier out of state diesel fuel. Currently, more than 50% of the miles driven by large trucks in California are driven by trucks coming in to the state from other regions - trucks which are almost always burning cheaper out-of-state diesel fuel. The California Trucking Association supports efforts for national diesel fuel conformity in order to solve this problem.
Clean-burning diesel fuel has been tapped by both President Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore as one of the clean fuels of the future. Clean diesel fuel burned in cleaner diesel engines has 90% fewer particulate emissions and more than 70% fewer ozone-causing gases than diesel used in California just 12 years ago. Clean diesel fuel is currently available for retail purchase only in California and Sweden. While modern, well-tuned California-based trucks are practically smokeless, out-of-state trucks burning out-of-state diesel fuel still have visible and smelly smoke coming from their exhaust pipes. The California Trucking Association supports efforts to clean up dirtier, out-of-state trucks and force them to comply with California's clean-air emission standards.
"It's time for every truck in the road to be smokeless, whether it's based in California or not," concluded Anderson. "We have the technology and we have the fuel. And now, with today's decision by the Air Resources Board, we have the direction we need to make diesel fuel safer and cleaner for the future - and that's good for everyone."
