With the NGT banning registration of new diesel vehicles in Delhi and the Supreme Court willing to hear a petition banning them from the national Capital, the 1999 report of Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA) headed by former bureaucrat Bhure lal seems to hold ground.
The EPCA in 1999 had submitted to the SC that plying of diesel vehicles should be banned in the NCR. Based on the EPCA report, the Amicus Curiae had filed an application for directions to “forthwith suspend registration of diesel vehicles until further orders.”
In its report, the EPCA had noted that regardless of numbers of diesel cars, the vehicles emitted the most toxic polluting component of the tiny particulates — Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM).
It had upheld its earlier contention that the “registration of new diesel driven private passenger vehicles should be banned, as this will cause the expansion of the pollution problem by creating a new use of diesel.”
Again in 2004, the EPCA said it was not enough to consider only the quantum of pollution but also toxicity of emissions.
“literature review shows that diesel vehicles contribute not only considerable amount of particulate from the transport sector but are also most toxic. Diesel particles have already been designated as toxic air containment and potential human carcinogen therefore should be minimised as drastically as possible.”
On the health implications of diesel vehicles, the EPCA said, “While direct emissions of particulates and nitrogen oxides are very high, they also contribute significantly towards the build-up of secondary particulates and ozone. Diesel particulates are largely elemental carbon, which absorb toxic organic compounds. The particulate emissions from uncontrolled diesel engines are 6 to 10 times greater than those from petrol engines.”
The California Air Resources Board had identified diesel exhaust in 1990 as a chemical known to cause cancer and after an extensive review in 1998, listed diesel exhaust as a toxic air containment.
More recently, the US National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences added diesel particulates to its list of substances that are reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens in its ninth national toxicology report on carcinogens.
The EPCA had warned that both PM and NOx levels in Delhi that are also related to diesel emissions were threatening to rise again. It said. “The contribution of diesel emissions to fine particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen and other carcinogens like polycyclic hydrocarbons should not be
underestimated.”
Overall Delhi has been recording explosive increase in vehicle numbers. In 2010-11, about 5,05,449 new vehicles had been added - close to 1300-1,400 vehicles a day. One third of these are cars. The most rapid increase has been in the share of diesel cars.