The press has been interested in the activity of the Group of European Research in Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (EUGT). This organization operated between 2007 and 2017 with funding from three German manufacturers: BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen. First came the scandal of the 10 monkeys, especially if we have the sensitivity towards animal abuse and its use in the lab (even if it is 100% legal).
so let’s recap. The EUGT commissioned a study on the impact on the health of the Institute Lovelace Research Respiratory (LRRI) Albuquerque (New Mexico, USA), which had 10 copies of macaques breathing during the hours of the escape of a Volkswagen Beetle Clean Diesel while they watched cartoons. Was a phase prior to experiment with people.
According to medical ethics, before you try something in humans have been made checks at the cellular level and subsequently with rats or apes. Once it has found that there is very low risk to the health, tests can be performed with volunteers who, obviously, know what they are exposed. Often used to young and healthy people to do this.
cynomolgus macaques of Albuquerque were confined to this form of breathing smoke from the exhaust of a Volkswagen Beetle
well, both the Stuttgarter Zeitung as the Süddeutsche Zeitung have found interesting information between the reports of the EUGT. Subsequently to the test with apes, we performed another experiment in Germany with 25 volunteers, specifically at the University Hospital of Aachen.
The researchers wanted to verify the effects of the smoke from the diesel engines of the latest generation of workers with exposure to gases, see mechanics or welders. This was after the who alertase that the smoke of the diesel is carcinogenic. These professionals, as they serve toll booths, they have a greater exposure to this poison.
Millions of europeans are involved in an experiment every day, without knowing it, without a contract, without consent, and without ethics committee: breathe the smoke of diesel in the street
Regardless of how good a diesel engine, it emits a higher amount of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and fine particulate matter (PM). In the case of the smaller particles, may end up in the bloodstream, and particulate filters cannot prevent 100% of the emission of these pollutants. Such fine particles cause, among other things, cancer.
University Hospital of Aachen
The reactions in Germany have not been slow in following these revelations. Politicians of different sign have condemned these experiments, in spite of having counted with the approval of an ethics committee independent. Not only that, this kind of tests with volunteers are relatively common.
The experiment may have been totally legal, but ethics and morality are highly questionable
however, their effectiveness at the experimental level is very limited, as volunteers are not evaluated in the medium and long term, precisely to avoid damage to your health. It is much more efficient to check the effect on the health of a european who lives in a city of medium size or large, as it breathes smoke of diesel every day.
, manufacturers that funded the EUGT are shown shocked and horrified because experiments may have been performed on humans. BMW has added that it must be considered that an ethical committee and the academic authorities had approved the conduct of those tests.
Eye: it is Not proven the direct involvement of BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen in the methodology of the tests. What is more, in a first time the three have claimed not to know what kind of tests did the LRRI until that is met by revelations news.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung picks up some interesting words of Rudolf Jörres, who leads a group of experimental Research at the University of Munich: “we Need those studies in humans to understand how they behave, the contaminants in the body”. Then he added: “If I want to recognize causal relationships I look for in people”.
there are No more questions, your honour
as much as this type of evidence have the support of the scientific community, it is scandalous and a new impact on the reputation of the lobby German prodiésel. There is ample scientific literature that links the rise of the diesel and its fumes with a worsening of air quality in large urban centres in europe. These experiments were, therefore, unnecessary.
it May be that the exhaust gas can be promptly innocuous, as the combustion perfect of a gasoline engine (N2 + O2 + H2O) or a diesel engine range in the laboratory levels of purity similar to an operating theatre, but in the laboratory. The reality is that the air in Europe is becoming more and more stale by the diesel (and not only for them), since a thing is a laboratory, and quite another to the real world.
PS: I will Resolutely want to stay away from any unfortunate comparison with the concepts “German” and “gas” because we enter in the field of cuñadismo and aberrations in historical and chemical. The smoke from a modern diesel just contains carbon monoxide (CO) and much less any resemblance to the Zyklon.B.
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