Ok. Serious question about ICE, I bet some of you know this one already.
I saw an "image" on facebook and I don't know, I am asking, can this be true.
The point of the image was a modern one ton full size pickup truck could be driven on an insane road trip, something like Prudhoe Bay to Las Vegas, and have the same total emissions as a 2 cycle leaf blower run at full throttle for 20 minutes.
Is this an exaggeration? I know ICE automotive technology has come an insanely long way in the last 40 years or so. Asking for a friend that has 2 cycle ICE on his boat.
Sounds legit to me. I have heard that lawn and landscaping equipment in California emits more (non-CO2) pollutants than all the passenger cars.
Almost like that equipment has not been subject to the same emission regulations as road vehicles for several decades. A Loophole.
ICE engine emissions are bad.
--Unburned alkanes are not that toxic. Most will oxidize in the atmosphere.
--Benzene is a potent carcinogen. The rate of cancers in the 20th century is 2-3X higher than the pre-industrial rate. The continuous dose of Benzene (ramped up after 1930 due to ICE vehicles) is thought to be a major contributor (cancer rates are measurably higher in people that live near/downwind of gas stations). The amount of Benzene in gasoline has been reduced by more than a factor of 10 over the last three decades for this reason. It has not been lowered further due to protests from Oil companies. Cancer rates are plateauing. Hmmm.
--Leaded gas shaved a few IQ points off a generation of people (including your truly). Now phased out.
--NOx (brown smog) interacts directly with the cardiovascular system as a signaling molecule. Scientists in the 70s noticed spikes in heart attacks and strokes coincident with bad air quality days. A very easy to observe correlation... that led to the Clean Air Act. More efficient ICE engines could be engineered, by using different materials and higher temperatures, and different air/fuel ratios... but they would produce more NOx, and so are not sold. Diesels (have higher temps) make more NOx, leading to the Dieselgate scandal (and an earlier truck scam at Mack).
--PM2.5 nanoparticles from Diesel are considered v dangerous. The rapid combustion in a Diesel engine is incomplete, so these particles are not just clean 'soot' as often supposed, but infused with a witch's brew of heavier and highly reactive incomplete combustion products. I have seen studies that show that the particles can be adsorbed by the olfactory receptors and trafficked directly to the brain. Many researchers believe this process causes chronic injury to the hippocampus, leading to Alzheimers and is responsible for the surge in same over the last few decades. PM2.5 regs were rolled out, and the Alzheimers 'surge' has leveled out and started to show signs of falling.
The big three... Cancer, Cardiovascular and Alzheimers... ICE emissions are implicated strongly in all three!
So yeah, ICE emission regulations have been doing a complex cost-benefit-technology dance driven by medical insights for the last 50+ years. A well documented story that nobody knows... while everyone is convinced they are getting cancer due to unmeasurable pesticide residues in their food or the nuke plant 20 miles away. While living in a house with measurable benzene vapor concentrations!
And ofc, the CO2 IS the long-term problem. So leaving that out from an emission story is misleading. I have heard the same stats cited as evidence that cars are not that bad for global warming!