Bicycle Blueprint

Chapter 18:
Air Pollution
a) Bad Air
b) Pollutants and Damage They Do
c) Pollution Control: Too Little, Too Late
d) The Bicycle Solution
e) Trial of the QB6: The Fight for Clean Air in NYC
f) Chapter 18 Recommendations

Table 18: Know Your Poisons: N.Y.C. Pollution Scorecard
Sidebar: Clean-Air Legislation

Know Your Poisons: N.Y.C. Pollution Scorecard

Of the dozens of air pollutants, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has identified six as particularly prevalent and poisonous. One of the six, sulfur dioxide, has diminished since the early 1970s, when the Lindsay Administration restricted sulfur in oil used by power plants and for home heating. Another, airborne lead, has been reduced by eliminating most lead from motor fuel. But the remaining four, all emitted primarily by cars, buses and trucks, continue to plague New Yorkers, especially on the city's crowded streets.

Read the latest news on this subject.

	Carbon Monoxide (CO)	Ozone (0₃) (Smog)	Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂)	Particulates (Soot)
Where It Comes From:	90% from motor vehicle exhaust	From combining in sunlight of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides (mostly emitted by autos)	All fossil fuel combustion, including motor vehicles, power plants, furnaces	In NYC, mostly diesel buses and trucks; also incinerators, factories, power plants
What It Does To You:	Shortness of breath, headache, heart strain	Shortness of breath, tightness in chest, coughing, eye-nose-throat irritation, scarring of lungs	Forms ozone smog; acute exposure causes respiratory illness; also causes acid rain	Diesel exhaust causes cancer; soot carries “air toxics” like cadmium and benzene into lungs
How To Spot It:	Can't — CO is invisible, odorless, tasteless	Yellow-brown haze in the air	Reddish-brown gas	Smoky exhaust; particles on face and tongue
When It's Worst:	In cold weather and heavy traffic, due to poor combustion	Summer; sunny days in general	Morning rush hour (before changing to smog in atmosphere)	Behind some trucks or almost any NYC bus, particularly when accelerating
NYC Violations:	26 days per year in 1988-89, less in 1990-91, none in 1992	19 days in 1991	Marginally in compliance	NYC's lone street-level monitor violates standard
NYC National Ranking:	Tied for 10th worst (1991)	4th worst (worst outside Southern California)	Not available	EPA doesn't compare cities' street-level readings
Changes Since 1970:	Better	Improved in 1970s, no improvement in '80s	No real change	Better overall, but worse in heavy traffic
How 1990 Law Affects:	High-O2 gasoline required in NYC since Oct. 1992 will reduce CO slightly; ditto, longer warranties on catalytic converters	NYC must cut 15% in 6 years, 3%/yr after; “reformulated” gas by 1995 will reduce some; ditto, canisters on new cars in 1994	New cars to reduce by 30% starting 1994; pollution devices on all new cars must work for 10 years or 100,000 miles	New diesels must run cleaner starting this year; cleaner fuel required 1993; Transit Authority testing control devices
Compliance Target:	12-31-95	By 2007	In compliance now	12-31-94 or 12-31-2001

Source: Jan/Feb 1991 City Cyclist, updated Dec. 1992. Thanks to NRDC, the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, London Cyclist, and other sources.