Cigarette Pollution Worse than Diesel

NewScientist reports that 3 cigarettes are ten times worse than 1 diesel engine, when particulate pollution is accumulated over 30 minutes of idling or cigarette-burning. This is from an Italian study conducted in a private garage in the small Alpine town of Chiavenna. The number of the tiniest particles was particularly bad from the cigarettes; the smaller ones cause worse health problems. Yet more reason not to smoke, if you care about the environment!

2 thoughts on “Cigarette Pollution Worse than Diesel”

  1. …that may be true, but of course diesel engines are run for longer.  It’s apparently a simple exercise to convert a diesel engine to run on vegetable oil though, and that’s significantly claener than the diesel-burning diesel engine (so maybe only one ciggy needed to compare the pollution :-)).  All that must be done is to warm the oil before it enters the engine, so that it is less viscous.

  2. .
    …in my comment above covered bio-diesel.

    I could also question the article personally since diesel fumes are enough to give me an instant headache, while (second-hand) cigarette smoke makes me cough. What would happen if I inhaled the exhaust from a bio-diesel engine running on old McDonald’s fry oil, where the fumes smell like french fries?

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