Cars and trucks are a lot cleaner than when I was growing up. In 1963, a typical car—which ran on leaded gasoline without pollution control devices—emitted 520 pounds of hydrocarbons, 1,700 pounds of carbon monoxide, and 90 pounds of nitrogen oxide every 10,000 miles traveled. In 1966, vehicles were responsible for nearly 60 percent of the 146 million tons of pollutants discharged into the air across the United States.
Thanks largely to the Clean Air Act, new passenger vehicles are 98 to 99 percent cleaner than they were 60 years ago when it comes to most tailpipe pollutants, including hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and fine particulate matter. Even so, cars and trucks are still making us sick—and killing us.
Today, the transportation sector still accounts for more than half of the toxic air pollution in the country, according to the Environmental…
Read the full article originally published at blog.ucsusa.org.