Donal Hickey: Engine idling — and why it's so dangerous for humans and animals
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It happens every day outside practically every school and on many streets. Engine idling is so widespread that we scarcely take any notice, even if it is bad for our health and the environment, as well as wasting fuel.
Apart from schools, we have buses waiting for passengers and vehicles making deliveries, never mind the long lines of cars coming to a virtual standstill in traffic congestion.
Exhaust fumes are especially harmful to children, pregnant women, older people and those with chest illnesses. Studies have also identified exposure to traffic air pollution as a 20% higher risk of stress, anxiety and poor mental health.
A UCC-based project, called Behaviair, which aims to reduce air polluting practices, is now focusing on car idling and has sent an e-zine on the subject to all primary schools in Cork.
Led by environmental psychologist, Dr Marica Cassarino, the project hopes to create more awareness of air pollution — a major contributor to climate emissions and a global health threat — arising from how we travel and heat our homes.
Teachers, pupils and parents are being told exhaust fumes from a car make the air inside the vehicle 12 times worse than that outside. The simple message is: switch off the engine while you are dropping off, or collecting, children.
Restarting a petrol, or diesel, engine uses less fuel than a car burns while idling for 10 seconds.
According to the Irish Asthma Society, one in ten children has asthma. We’re told that, as children’s lungs are not fully developed and they have weaker immune systems, they are more susceptible to health hazards from car fumes.
Last year, UCC became first university in Ireland to implement a no-engine-idling policy, amid calls for legislation to ban engine idling as is common across Europe.
Most modern cars have an automated engine-shutdown feature that saves fuel and money, and reduces harmful emissions, yet engine idling persists.
Behaviair co-lead, Dr Dean Venables, of UCC’s Centre for Research into Atmospheric Chemistry, said air pollution accounts for about 10 times more deaths than road traffic fatalities in Ireland.
Idling releases toxic substances like nitrogen dioxide, black carbon and particulate matter into the air that harms those outside and inside vehicles, he added. It also emits carbon dioxide, a major contributor to climate change.
Staff, students and visitors to UCC are asked to switch their car engine off when stopped. Other universities across the world have also rolled out no engine idling policies and awareness campaigns.
- Funded by the Science Foundation, Behaviar is collaborative project including UCC, Cork City Council, Cork Healthy Cities and other partners