by Walther Ploos van Amstel
Exhaust from vehicles is a major source of air pollution worldwide. A by the ICCT study links state-of-the-art vehicle emissions, air pollution, and epidemiological models to estimate the impacts of transportation sector emissions on ambient PM and ozone and associated health impacts in 2010 and 2015.
Exposure to environmental pollution is thought to cause as many as 9 million premature deaths each year. The largest health impacts are associated with air pollutants and particulate matter in particular. The latter is thought to cause an average reduction in life expectancy of 6 to 12 months in Europe.
A new report presents the results of the Amsterdam AMS Stimulus Project ‘Green Junkie: Plant-powered air cleaning’. In this project, the authors tested the idea that a specially developed plant named Green Junkie could increase air quality along roads intensively used for car traffic.