Vehicles and Air Pollution

Air pollution is the contamination of the atmosphere and environment by the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter or biological materials. In today’s world, vehicles prove to be a major cause of air pollution. Let us see a few facts about how vehicular pollution can disturb lifestyle and be harmful for human health :

1. The exhaust released by the vehicles as a result of combustion of fossil fuels contains minute carbon particles and various other poisonous gases. Prolonged exposure to such gases can cause lung cancer and various other heart diseases. – Shri Ram Siddhaye, Dainik Maharashtra Times (India), March 2002

2. The problem of air pollution due to vehicles has spared no country. In Kolkata (a city in India), afternoon atmosphere seems just like a smoky evening and this is an outcome of air pollution.

3. In Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, increased number of vehicles has resulted in a large amount of air pollution. A testimony for this – traces of lead have been found in gums and urine of students studying in schools adjacent to the highways! – Dainik Pudhari (India), 3.6.1999

4. A professor friend of mine said, ‘The atmosphere above metropolitan cities like New York, Tokyo, and London has become extremely poisonous. The pollution level at present is thrice of what man could bear and still he lives in it. His body has now become resistant to higher pollution levels.’

– Gurudev Dr. Kateswamiji (Ghanagarjit, March 2008)

The use of petrol and diesel pollutes the air and harms mankind, animals as well as plants. If so, why do you drive vehicles? How much are you going to poison the air by using petrol and diesel? Don’t you feel that these hands which contribute in poisoning the atmosphere should be cut apart?

– Gurudev Dr. Kateswamiji (Ghanagarjit, July 2009)