nukesafe

Yes, Cowboy, the issue came up for me many years ago when we were talking with the Swiss about siting criteria for nuclear power plants. The subject of accident dose calculations came up and stagnation phenomena at some of the potential sites gave such poor dispersal values as to make the results curl one's hair -- or fall out, as the case might be.

No nuclear power for those Swiss valleys, but potential calculated dispersal for pollutants from other power sources gave even more grim health effects -- which the Swiss scoffed at.

Robert2533

"I find the air quality in Paris pretty bad but it has not reached the levels of when I lived in Los Angeles in the 1970's." But you did survive!

I'll take Paris over the City of Angles any day, inversion layer or not... And I've been through a few.

Jean

Smog is smog, no matter the cause.

http://www.thelocal.fr/20140516/two-...uted-in-france

Cowboy1968

Well, with regard to energy, Switzerland is 95% carbon-neutral.
They get som 40% of their power from nuclear power plants (there ARE 5 of those in CH), and 55% from water/hydropower plants.
In addition, truck transit traffic is heavily regulated so that big trucks going from Germany to Italy have to use auto trains (well, truck trains) - or have to go via Austria.
The air pollution comes mostly from traffic, industry (even though the use of filters is prescribed), and private homes heating (esp. with wood).
Cars already have catalyt converters for decades, newer diesel cars have pretty efficient filters for the small particles that are the main cause of the problem. Trucks are a massive problem, just by the sheer increase of traffic - and by building super-highways through areas with poor air dispersal rates.
So the remedies for the affected regions would be much more draconic than in other parts of the world where the phasing out of fossile fuels for energy or and obligation to have high-tech filters in cars already had the desired effect.
Plus, as two countries are affected (the cited Annemasse in Jean's article is in fact the Geneva metro area), you would need a joint proceeding - which does not make it much simpler.
E.g., if you banned trucks from using the Mont Blanc tunnel, truck traffic would take a longer route through other regions of France where the residents would also not be amused plus the existing auto routes would need to be widened to handle the extra traffic, which is also not a measure that helps you gain votes in the next elections.

scrb11

Many American car enthusiasts covet European diesel cars for their performance and fuel efficiency.

Supposedly these are clean diesels but sounds like they're dumping a lot of particulates into the air.

Or is it that there are so many cars and trucks which are several decades old?

bilboburgler

Having worked in the auto industry, American levels of fuel usage is just crazy, I was on a Green website recently where the guys gave you a green credit if your car did more than 30MPG. In Europe I havn't has a car that could get below 45MPG for the last 20 years.

Diesel does make particulates, hence the very hot carbon burning catalysts included in their exhausts and the occasional need to "de-carbon" that comes up on the control module.

PalenQ

My French friends come to Michigan and always marvel at what clean air we have - "fresh" they aay and bemoan the air at home - I think this is a bit of an over reaction or placebo effect as the air ain't that clean, having pollution blown over from Wisconsin's industries around Milwaukee, etc. but compared to air in Orleans France at least it seems a lot purer.

Cowboy1968

Just as a reminder, the EU (which is smaller than "Europe") is roughly half the size of the Continental USA with appr. 60% more inhabitants. What makes you think that our air was less polluted? ;-)