Electric Car Ownership, Air Pollution, Environmental and Public Health

Vehicle exhaust fills the air worldwide with particulate matter, also called particulates, such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, toxic organic micro pollutants and volatile organic compounds. The tiny particles go straight for the bloodstream and the lungs so that chest pains, coughs, internal organ damage, shortness of breath and throat irritation ensue. Toxic organic micro pollutants produced from incompletely burned fuels have a range of effects, from cancer to internal organ damage, interrupted child development and reduced immunity. Carbon monoxide inhibits oxygen deliveries to connective tissue and internal organs while ozone, product of nitrogen oxide, sunlight and volatile organic compounds, leaves everyone ultimately breathless.

Emission levels jump downward with electric car ownership even though fuel origins, performances, quality and releases behind generation of electricity may have pit-to-plug and well-to-wheel implications. 

Hydroelectric, solar and wind turbine power stations keep air pollution levels low since they do not emit carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide.  

Iceland leads in pioneering geothermal energy extracted from hot water surface pools and volcanoes formed by the meeting of the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. Geothermal power stations minimize carbon dioxide emissions and release no carbon dioxide even though they emit trace amounts of ammonia, arsenic, hydrogen sulphide, mercury and methane. Nuclear power stations need to be monitored for radioactive waste even though they release no pollutants other than carbon dioxide, at lower levels than geothermal stations.

Gas-fired stations offer about one-half and one-third of coal-fired and of oil-fired station-released carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, and traces of sulphur dioxide.

Battery charge-ups overnight, non-existent point-of-use pollution, recyclable vehicle parts and renewable power innovations put electric car ownership, not conventional car operation, alongside environmental and public health. Governments and manufacturers quantify the compatibility as 60 percent shifts to electric cars by 2050 and 20 percent increases in electricity consumption with 100 percent shifts.

Scientific advances and technological breakthroughs respond to such environmental and public health challenges as Fukushima meltdowns, mountaintop removal coal mining and shale oil production-facilitated earthquake incidence. They suggest that conventional car ownership and non-renewable power sources remain competitive until coal, gas and oil exhaustion predictions are realized and nuclear-powered stations are decommissioned.

Michael Boxwell, respected expert on renewable energy sources, thinks that solar- and wind-powered electricity-generating stations advance electric car ownership and assuage environmental and public health concerns. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

The world's two all-time, best selling all-electric cars are Nissan Leaf (left), with over 192,000 global sales through September 2015, and Tesla Model S (right), with over 90,000 by October 2015.
Gran Turismo 6 (GT6); Friday, December 6, 2013, 22:33:26: Alexander Nie (NiePhotography), CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/niephotography/14397881907/

Iceland is the Nordic island country's second largest geothermal power station.
near Þingvellir (anglicized: Thingvellir) National Park, southwestern Iceland; Friday, October 6, 2006, 10:19: Gretar Ívarsson (Gretar Ívarsson, geologist at Nesjavellir), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NesjavellirPowerPlant.jpg

Eco-technology author Michael Boxwell specializes in writing about electric cars.
Michael Boxwell rests against Mitsubishi electric car; Thursday, February 11, 2010, 12:11: Michael Boxwell, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michael_Boxwell.jpg

"The Electric Car Guide - 2015 Edition" (1:07)
Uploaded December 17, 2014, by Michael Boxwell to YouTube ~ URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9F8K63ogr0

Lithium ion battery packs in electric cars may be recharged or swapped.
Nissan Leaf's lithium-ion battery pack; Nissan Leaf at 2009 Tokyo Motor Show; Friday, October 23, 2009, 16:23: Tennen-Gas (天然ガス), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nissan_Leaf_012.JPG

“Ambient (Outdoor) Air Quality and Health.” World Health Organization > Media Centre > Fact Sheets > Fact Sheet N°313 Updated March 2014.

• Available @ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/

Boxwell, Michael. 2015. The Electric Car Guide 2015 Edition: Discover the Truth about Owning and Using Electric Cars. Coventry, England, UK: Greenstream Publishing Limited.

Nel, André.  2005. “Air Pollution-Related Illness: Effects of Particles.” Science Volume 308, Issue 5723, Pages 804 – 806.