Health Benefits from an Electric Fleet
An electric vehicle fleet will lead to immense improvements in the quality of air in city areas. There are no localised emissions from electric vehicles. Depending on the type of power generation supplying the electricity for electric vehicles, air pollution may still occur in centralised locations (such as coal fired power plants) but it is easier to control these emissions than controlling emissions from millions of individual vehicles. If electricity is generated from renewable sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, wave, emissions are effectively eliminated althogether. The resulting health benefits from both financial and human perspectives are enormous and reinforce the arguments in favour of changing the fleet over as soon as possible. In comparison, pollutants emitted from petroleum based motor vehicles exhausts include the following:
The adverse health effects from chronic exposure to petroleum combustion are well documented and alarming. 
Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use by the U.S. National Research Council concludes that in 2005, the vehicle sector produced $56 billion in health and other non-climate-change damages in the U.S. Traffic pollution has been found to be a major killer across Europe. According to research published in 2000, 6% of deaths per year in France, Austria and Switzerland are due to air pollution. Traffic fumes were responsible for at least 500,000 asthma attacks and more than 25,000 new cases of chronic bronchitis each year. In the UK it is thought that air pollution is the cause for 1 in 10 deaths due to lung cancer. In 1998 the Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants estimated that 24,000 premature deaths occur in the UK every year as a direct result of air pollution. In London road transport contributes almost 80% of particulate emissions.
Similar findings are emerging from other international research. In Europe up to 13,000 deaths per year among children (aged 0-4 years) are directly attributable to outdoor pollution according to the World Health Organisation. With an electric fleet much of the air pollution found in major cities would be reduced or eliminated. This will contribute to much cleaner urban environments, a reduction in medical treatment and expenditure related to air pollution, an easing on the healthcare system, longer life expectancies and better health outcomes for city dwellers. It is estimated by the New South Wales Department of Health that air pollution costs NSW $4.7 billion per annum in health costs. Air pollution is responsible for 2.3% of all deaths in Australia. Air pollution causes more deaths in NSW annually than traffic accidents. Between 640 and 1400 people die prematurely each year due to air pollution and air pollution is the cause of 2000 hospitalisations annually in the Sydney Greater Metropolitan region. |
Through the introduction of effective policy controls and stringent regulations, the amount of air pollution from petroleum based vehicles has been reduced in Europe. Vehicles manufactured today have 20 times less emissions than vehicles produced in 1970.Regulations and technological advances can do only so much however. With an ever expanding fleet much of the benefits of tighter regulation are offset by sheer volumes of emissions as the fleet continues to expand.Some have raised the risk of increased rates of cancer through Electro Magnetic Field exposure. There is no proven link at present but much conjecture on this subject. What is known however is that vehicle exhausts are deadly in confined spaces and detrimental to health generally in the sorts of concentrated amounts found in modern cities. In most developed countries governments have embarked on major anti-smoking campaigns over the past thirty years but there is growing criticism that not enough has been done to tackle air pollution.  Apart from direct health impacts from vehicle exhaust systems, contaminants from petroleum end up in our water systems due to runoff from road surfaces and deliberate dumping of oil wastes by garages into drains. We are also all too familiar with major oil spills from tankers and ocean drilling activities although it should be acknowledged that tanker spills have been on the declinedue to better management practices and technological innovation.West Atlas oil rig on fire and leaking oil
However it has been stated that much more pollution of our oceans occurs from ships discharging ballast sea water with contaminated oil and deliberately washing out oil tanks prior to taking on new oil. This type of pollution can have devasting effects on the health of river and marine ecosystems adding more weight to the argument that petroleum based transport systems have unacceptable health impacts and should be phased out rapidly. Perhaps the most significant health benefit to be realised by the implementation of an electric fleet will be a substantial reduction in CO2. The health predictions of accelerated climate change are dire: “Our health ultimately depends on having a healthy environment to sustain us. Climate change is one of the biggest environmental and health equity challenges of our time. Coordinated action from governments, business and the community to reduce greenhouse gas and air pollution is essential if we are to protect the health of all Australians and the wider global community,” Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, president Australian Medical Association. The phasing out of our current toxic transport fleet is long overdue from a health perspective – it is imperative that non polluting forms of transport are developed and actively encouraged. |
