Atricle: Support a Ban on Unnecessary Engine Idling in Your Community

Vehicle emissions greatly contribute to the pollutants that contribute to greenhouse gases – the gases that are responsible for the climatic warming we are experiencing on Earth. Engine idling is a serious contributor to greenhouse gases. Natural Resources Canada unequivocally states that, ‘… the transportation sector is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. For every litre of gasoline used, the average car produces about 2.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas.’

Natural Resources Canada further advises, ‘If every driver of a light-duty vehicle in Canada avoided idling for just five minutes a day, we would prevent more than 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year.’ This represents an enormous contribution to Canada's climate change efforts. Engine Idling reduction strategies are one example of how communities can assist citizens in taking responsibility for their climate change contributions.

The Oak Bay Green Committee (OBGC) and GreenGatherings have organized a No Engine Idling campaign targeting Oak Bay’s municipal schools. The campaign provided schools with No Engine Idling Aluminum Signs and Information Kits. “The No Engine Idling campaign not only educates drivers about the need to reduce emissions, it creates awareness around the relationship between society’s over-reliance on vehicles and the damage it is doing to the environment and our children,” explains campaign coordinator Britt Karlstrom.

The OBGC and GreenGatherings focused on schools as Natural Resources Canada reports that children are especially susceptible to carbon emissions due to their developing lungs and need to take in oxygen at an increased rate; exposing them to increased amounts of particulate matter believed to cause respiratory related illnesses. Often, school parking lots are hot spots for idling vehicles – as caregivers drop off and pick up children in early morning (when children are arriving) and afternoon (when children are leaving).

Serious health effects from exposure to vehicle emissions:
During the course of the engine idling campaign, the Oak Bay Green Committee became aware of the numerous studies supporting the dangers of long term exposure to both particulate matter produced from the burning of fossil fuels and vehicle emissions which emit various air pollutants including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particular matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO) and sulphur oxides (SOx).

The Ontario College of Physicians, in their document The Health Effects of Urban Sprawl Air Pollution, clearly state that particulate matter and vehicle emissions have many negative effects on physical health including cardiovascular effects; a link between fine particulate pollution and lung cancer; exposure to vehicle-exhaust has also been linked to ovarian cancer; and exposure to carbon monoxide and ozone during the second month of pregnancy has been linked to cardiac and orificial defects.

The Canadian Lung Association reports that exposure to particulate matter has been linked with mild symptoms such as coughing and wheezing, with exacerbation of pre-existing lung diseases like bronchitis and COPD to serious health effects including cancer, heart attacks and strokes. This is only a very small sampling of the research available that supports the link between negative health effects and long-term exposure to particulate matter and vehicle emissions.

In the past few months, many communities have begun their own No Engine Idling initiatives. These include: City of Victoria (about to implement the first no engine idling bylaw on Vancouver Island), Saanich (implementing a ban on engine idling at their schools); Langford (in the process of implementing a no engine idling bylaw); Sidney and Esquimalt (in discussion stages of how to reduce engine idling in their communities), View Royal (decided to implement a no engine idling campaign) and Central Saanich and North Saanich (both wrote letters supporting a ban on engine idling in the Capital Regional District.)

In fact, Engine Idling bans are nothing new in Canada. Various types of anti-idling provisions have been included in municipal by-laws for at least three decades. Montreal City passed an air quality by-law in 1970 and the first stand-alone anti-idling by-law was passed by the City of Toronto in 1996.

Since then, more than fourteen municipalities in southern Ontario now have anti-idling by-laws, including six in the Greater Toronto Area. Individual citizens and local environmental organizations continue to lobby municipal governments to consider and implement No Engine Idling bylaws. The Anti Idling momentum continues to grow with other municipalities – including Markham, Newmarket, Oshawa, the City of North Vancouver, Vancouver, Welland, Whitby and Squamish currently considered adopting anti-idling bylaws.

The No Engine Idling movement is spreading across Canada and we hope it will continue to gain momentum on Vancouver Island and surrounding communities and islands. Even though there is much progress being made, one only has to visit school parking lots, drive-throughs and any ferry terminal to see that we need to continue to raise awareness about the negative effects of unnecessary vehicle idling.

Ferry terminals and unnecessary engine idling:
Ferry terminals are sites of excessive vehicle idling. Individuals, such as ferry workers, with increased exposure to vehicle idling have increased health risks. Implementing a ban on unnecessary engine idling at all BC ferry terminals would limit the exposure of ferry workers (and travelers) to the negative health effects of vehicle emissions.


source;www.pej.org