Suvs Pollute The Air Too

With government preparing to implement the stringent provisions of the Clean Air Act, expect the bureaucrats to target the most visible violators like the diesel-run buses, jeepneys and utility vehicles. Many of us will heave a sigh of relief and say, it is about time someone did something about all those polluting vehicles. Not many will think twice about the inconvenience that this will cause some of our poor, the lower income segment of our society.

Used to a hard life, the ordinary commuter whose bus is stopped and found violating the law, will perhaps find the inconvenience of transferring buses during rush hour the price that must be paid for cleaner air. But is it fair that the rich folks in their SUVs get away with nothing for contributing to environmental degradation just as badly?

Last week, William Clay Ford Jr., the chairman of Ford Motor Co., and the great-grandson of founder Henry Ford, begun to voice second thoughts about SUVs. In its first "corporate citizenship report," issued at Ford Motor's annual shareholders' meeting, Ford said that the SUVs contributed more than cars to global warming, emitted more smog-causing pollution and endangered other motorists.

While he has started to have "second thoughts" about SUVs, Ford said the motor company would keep building them because they provide needed profits. He promised to look for technological solutions to the problems posed by the SUVs.

Ford is really in a spot. He has made noises about being an ardent environmentalist. Now Ford concedes that his company's new SUV, the Excursion's fuel consumption (10 miles per gallon in the city, 13 on the highway) helps worsen global warming, and that its bulk (more than 7,500 pounds -- three times as heavy as a Honda Civic) puts other motorists at risk.

What should he do? Building small vehicles may be environmentally wise and good for his conscience. But it would be a disaster for his shareholders. Consumers want SUVs, the larger, the better. And if Ford didn't build them, some other company would.

Short of passing another law that will ban SUVs from our streets, the only practical way of discouraging more SUVs to be imported, is to tax it heavily, according to weight. That is, in any case, justified because all those Expeditions and Suburbans (and Pajeros and Patrols and Prados) are really trucks and a truck's weight is a good indicator of how much damage it does to our roads. In addition to weight, vehicle taxes can also be pegged according to emission levels and fuel economy.

The rich and ostentatious will always be amongst us. We must make them carry their burden in cleaning our air, as the price to pay for obliging their flair to show off. It is only fair.

Everything seems to be linked to cancer these days. So it is refreshing news that US health authorities have removed at least one common substance we use everyday from the list of potential cancer triggers. Saccharin has just been removed from the list of suspected carcinogens. That's good news for those of us who love diet soft drinks and for diabetics whose ice cream and other desserts are sweetened by saccharin.

But the bad news is, the same advisory added 14 substances, including second-hand tobacco smoke, as known causes. It also added alcoholic beverages along with sunshine and sunlamps, silica dust and the breast-cancer drug tamoxifen as potentially cancer causing.

The National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, which issued the bi-annual report, removed saccharin as a potential cancer-causing agent because tests that showed it caused tumors in rats did not apply to humans. It had been listed since 1981. Ha! This was exactly what my father had been saying many years ago. "How dare them," he growled, "compare me to a rat."

Second-hand smoke topped the new list. Environmental tobacco smoke, generated from sidestream and exhaled mainstream smoke of cigarettes, pipes, and cigars is listed as a known human carcinogen. There are reports that showed second-hand smoke can cause lung cancer, as well as studies showing that non-smoking wives and co-workers of smokers have higher rates of lung cancer.

Smokeless tobacco, including chewing tobacco and snuff, were listed, as well as consumption of alcohol, too much sun and the use of tanning beds or sun lamps. Alcohol is associated with cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus, and there may be a link with liver and breast cancer. Chewing tobacco and snuff can cause cancer wherever they contact the mouth or nose.

Substances added to the "reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens" list include diesel exhaust particulates, isoprene -- one of the components of rubber which is also naturally emitted by plants -- chloroprene, phenolphthalein -- used in some laxatives -- tetrafluoroethylene and trichloroethylene.

This should strengthen the resolve of authorities to strictly enforce the no smoking ban in public buildings. Smokers may want to kill themselves but they should spare others who value their lives by not smoking. It may be inadequate to merely assign a "smoking area" in a restaurant.

And now that diesel exhaust particulates have been added to the list, the drive of Bantay Kalikasan and the MMDA, LTO, LTFRB and other civic groups to stop smoke belching vehicles from polluting our streets deserves our support.

This one's from Tam Yeng Siang using a skyinet e-mail address.

A married couple was in a terrible accident where the woman's face was severely burned. The doctor told the husband that they couldn't graft any skin from her body because she was too skinny. So the husband offered to donate some of his own skin.

However, the only skin on his body that the doctor felt was suitable would have to come from his buttocks. The husband and wife agreed that they would tell no one about where the skin came from, and requested that the doctor also honor their secret. After all, this was a very delicate matter.

After the surgery was completed, everyone was astounded at the woman's new beauty. She looked more beautiful than she ever had before! All her friends and relatives just went on and on about her youthful beauty!

One day, she was alone with her husband, and she was overcome with emotion at his sacrifice. She said, "Dear, I just want to thank you for everything you did for me. There is no way I could ever repay you."

"My darling," he replied, "I get all the thanks I need every time I see your mother kiss you on the cheek."

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])