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Comment by jeffwass | Hacker News Reader

I’ve lived in London the past decade and had problems with air pollution (got bronchitis a number of times in the last few years).

Just today my GP suggested getting an inhaler. And I just found out a guy I work with got an inhaler last week.

It’s insane how bad the air pollution is, estimated to cause 40k premature deaths each year.

Meanwhile the government hardly does anything (though see below). People feel it’s their divine right to drive old dirty diesel vehicles and how dare the government impose any restriction on this polluting behaviour.

Luckily London just set up the ULEZ (ultra low emission zone) in a small part of central London, making older dirty cars pay a fee if they enter. But they’re not extending the ULEZ to Greater London for another two and a half years. Or another 100k premature deaths.

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You could say the same thing about driving at all. People think it's their divine right to drive, even though driving at all reports 165,000 casualties of all levels in the UK, per year: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casua...

And the government does nothing. Except speed bumps, which people complain about, mandatory car maintenance, which people complain about, traffic lights everywhere, which people complain about, speed cameras, which people complain about, regulate emissions, which people complain about.

The UK government permits new cars to be sold with tailpipe emissions which are VASTLY higher than those of comparable vehicles in the USA. The Dieselgate scandal never ended outside USA. It's just business as usual in Europe. The UK government is complicit in knowingly allowing manufacturers to sell extremely polluting diesels. The green initiatives in the UK are hilariously inadequate because so many brand new cars are diesels with extreme emissions levels compared to comparable cars sold in the United States. American market diesels do not pollute anywhere as much as UK market diesels.

> The UK government permits new cars to be sold with tailpipe emissions which are VASTLY higher than those of comparable vehicles in the USA.

What I could find about the latest standards does not seem to support your claim. But maybe I'm looking at wrong numbers or misinterpreting them, so I wouldn't mind looking at your own sources if you have them.

EURO 6d standards for diesel passenger cars [1]:

- CO: 0.5 g/km

- NOx: 0.080 g/km

- PM: 0.0045 g/km

California LEV standards for passenger cars <50K miles/5 years [2]. (Not the same as EPA, but I assume California is more strict):

- CO: 3.4 g/mi = 2.1 g/km

- NOx: 0.2 g/mi = 0.12 g/km

- PM: 0.08 g/mi = 0.05 g/km

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_emission_standards

[2] https://www.dieselnet.com/standards/us/ld_ca.php

Source?

Hopefully non autonomous driving becomes illegal. Its a lethal weapon and we shouldnt be trusting humans with cars

But then you'd be trusting software developers with cars. What if a botnet of cars activates and tries to mow down everybody around?

You must have read Seeker by Douglas E Richards :)

For improved lung health I recommend daily magnesium (200mg+) and iodine (1mg+). Cured my asthma. No more inhalers!

Are you not worried about hypothydroism from the iodine?

http://www.thyroid.org/iodine-deficiency/

This page indicates hypothyroidism is a result of iodine deficiency, rather than excess. Hyperthyroidism may be caused by excess iodine.

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/...

It can be both. Also, too much iodine can cause thyroid inflammation and cancer.

https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iodine-Consumer/

Do you not eat salt?

There are 45 μg / gram of salt. That means if you consume the recommended amount (1.5-2.3 grams a day) you're getting 1/10 of the supplement dose indicated above. Even a famously salty big mac would get you 100 μg of iodine.

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