Should we be concerned about our diesels

[RetroPug]

Diesel vehicles do not pollute more than petrol ones, they pollute differently! In real terms as petrol and diesel are pretty much the same stuff, long/medium chain hydrocarbons, or carbon and hydrogen atoms that break down when combusted. As diesel combustion is more efficient you extract more of the potential energy from each unit of fuel) technically in the purest terms diesel is less polluting.

While it is true that they are both bad in terms of overall pollution, being in close proximity to diesel tailpipe emissions is more hazardous to your health than petrol. This is why there's a drive to reduce the number of them in densely populated areas, as the effect of multiple diesel vehicles all running in a small area does put a lot of particulates in the air, which are then inhaled.

Whilst CO2 escapes into the atmosphere and is undoubtedly bad, it doesn't quite affect human health so directly as saturating the local environment with heavy particulates that don't just float away into the sky.