Ban diesel?

I always thought that Beachland/2/3.. had a point. It was just the way he went about making that point! Co2 is not the anti-christ that politicians have you believe, the crap that diesels pump out is far worse for us.

I'm sure a rise in tax on diesel would be attractive to the government as 53% of new car sales were diesel last year.

We always new that diesel exhaust was nasty. Politicians nevertheless decided, in their infinite wisdom, to encourage sales of diesel cars. Nothing has changed. polititians are still no wiser.

I think the report was more concentrating on those who are exposed to diesel on a regular basis as part of their work.  I think the suggestion was that for the general public the emissions from diesel was still not a major health risk.  I remain unconcvinced but that's what I read.

One interesting thing to note was that in the Budget in April, the government proposed removing the 3% tax burden on diesel cars from next year (I think), so the Company Car Tax Policy has become even more diesel-friendly.

I did grin wryly and think of Beachland when I read about that...

I think we may be headed for a shake-up of road tax over the next few year anyway, as the focus moves away from CO2 to whatever the next target is. 

Ostensibly, this is because new research suggests that CO2 is not the be-all and end-all of environmental problems that was previously thought.  But cynically, I suspect it is because car manufacturers are getting very good at reducing CO2 outputs to lower tax thresholds and this is ruining government budget forecasts for coming years.

A ban might be a little extreme, but as the CO2 tax system discourages the use of Petrol we could do with a change to level the field once again. I have only ever had one diesel, and that was my employers choice not mine. I have driven a few more, and been in more still. Not one has convinced me its a better fuel than petrol, but then i dont drive too far. If my 12,000 to 15,000 miles a year were 2 or 3 times this i might find the current tax system more of an incentive.

But of course many more people are influenced by how cheaply they can have a company car, not how it drives, or indeed what the emissions do to anyone else!

Probably worth remembering at this point that the one and only reason diesel cars became popular was due to, still high, government taxes on fuel forcing people to quite reasonably seek ways to save money.

I suspect that as the fleets of old, black cloud emitting buses become baked bean cans things will improve dramatically.

Not enough information in that report for informed comment. After all, it appears that wood chippings are on the same list of nasties, perhapps we should ban wooden furniture?

I think wood chippings are in the same category as diesel - they're only nasty when you burn them....

Serious Question : Just how much does this apply to the modern efficent DPF (or similar) equipped car . I am sure it does but to what degree, as the "Car" is not actually mentioned in the report but does list a group of traditionally large, low tech etc engined applications.

Although from the report we can clearly see that banning smoking is far more important than banning diesel.....?