further elections not needed

EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL
ENVIRONMENT
March (2003)
(...)
At the present levels of PM (particulate matter) in Europe the most significant effects are increased mortality and increased morbidity such as increased frequency of hospital admissions for cardiopulmonary disease. There is no apparent threshold for the health effects due to exposure to PM. Therefore no safe level may be defined for which there are no effects. WHO2 estimated that the increased mortality due to PM in outdoor air to be about 100,000 annually in Europe. Part of the increased mortality is due to short-term exposure to high PM levels advancing death in severely sick, weak or elderly people. But the major part of the increased mortality may be due to long-term exposure to PM thereby reducing life expectancy significantly.

The reduction of life expectancy due to exposure to outdoor PM can reach up to a few years in the more polluted areas of Europe.

The levels of PM exposing humans depend on location, climate, weather and time of the year. In many European cities the levels of PM10 are above the EU limit values of 40 ug/m3 as annual average and 50 µg/m3 as daily mean, both of which to be met in 2005. Also outside urban areas the levels are high due to long distance transport of primary particles and the formation of secondary particles derived from gaseous precursor pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, ammonia and nitrogen oxides. A number of sources contributes to the airborne primary and secondary PM. The relative contributions to anthropogenic PM-emissions by sectors for 1999 in the EU were: road transport 28 percent, energy industry 24 percent, industry energy use 14 percent, agriculture 13 percent, other transport emissions 11 percent and other 10 percent.

200 years, you say? That's precisely what worries me. I'd like my children growing up in a healthy environment starting now. There's no reason not to, except for that horrendous cynicism so many obey to.

It's kind of pointless, BrandX--Wolf knows all the answers, and can undoubtedly tell us how he will smite the dragons of the auto and gasoline industries in order to turn the world upside down in a few years to accomplish his agenda. He's not overly fond of giving up an idea, when once he's gotten a hold on it. Rather like a puppy with a stick. He hasn't accumulated sufficient wisdom or experience of life to understand that ranting on a subject, and throwing accusations at others of negligence or ignorance accomplish nothing, apart from making others unwilling to listen. Some day, when he's grown up, he'll realize that things are never as simple as he makes them out to be.