ON THE ROAD Air inside vehicles more polluted than air outside

CALIFORNIA has the most stringent

tailpipe emission standards in the entire

United States, yet a two-year $440,000

state Air Resources Board (ARB) study indicated higher levels

of toxic pollutants inside cars than the air outside.

A Scrips McClatchy news feature datelined Sacramento reports

that concentrations of some pollutants and toxic compounds

inside the vehicles of California commuters are as much as 10

times higher than the air outside.

The logical conclusion is that people may be subjected to the

highest daily exposure to air pollutants during their commute to

and from work, the ARB chair said.

What was even more surprising was that the levels of pollutants

inside buses were found to be higher than the air outside, but

not as high as passenger cars.

The study involved 27 especially equipped vehicles-only two of

which were buses-in Sacramento and Los Angeles, the two

areas of California where motor vehicles account for the highest

proportion of air pollution. The researchers used more sensitive

measuring instruments than those used in another study in 1988

by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The ARB

findings confirmed the results of the 1988 study.

The ARB spokesperson said that in general, levels of toxics

(including henzene, formaldehyde, toluene, xylene, MTBE,

heavy metals, hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide) are higher

inside vehicles than outside ambient air since cars are

surrounded by emissions from other vehicles on freeways and

streets.

The researchers found that as much as one-half of the

pollutants inside test cars were emitted by the vehicle ahead.

Thus, pollution levels are highly sensitive to traffic patterns and

motorists who use less congested traffic lanes or are farther

away from the truck lanes were exposed to lower pollution

levels.

The moral of the story, applied here in Manila, is that

airconditioning won't spare you from the pollutants coming out

of the tailpipe of the vehicle ahead of you. Moreover, it is

healthier to drive or commute when there is less traffic and to

avoid driving behind a smoke-belching truck, bus, jeepney or

diesel-fueled sport utility vehicle (SUV). This caveat goes

double for children, who are more susceptible to air pollution.

Meanwhile, despite the health risks caused by motor vehicles,

auto sales are booming in America. A record 6.9 million vehicles

were sold in the first five months of the year in the United

States, up from a robust 6.4 million for the year-ago period,

Robyn Meredith of The New York Times reports. Auto

manufacturers, flush with profits from five fat years, are

scrambling to keep up with the demand for pickup trucks and

SUVs by going on an expansion binge totaling billions of

dollars.

And for good reason. In 1990, 67 percent of new vehicle sales

consisted of cars while light trucks (SUVs, minivans and

pickups) made up the rest. Last year, the sales gap between cars

and trucks declined dramatically-cars cornered 52.4 percent of

sales while light trucks got 47.6 percent.

Even European carmakers are getting into the act. BMW,

encouraged by the success of its rival Mercedes-Benz's M-class

SUV, will begin building this fall its X5 "sports activity vehicle"

at its South Carolina factory where its Z3 roadsters are now

built. BMW will invest $600 million to expand the factory and

plans to hire 1,000 more workers to build the X5.

Toyota, which recently launched the Tundra, its first large,

eight-cylinder pickup, is reportedly spending $500 million to

expand its $700-million pickup factory in Indiana.

But Detroit is not sitting still while the Europeans and Japanese

invade their SUV territory. Ford, for example, has announced it

would assemble a new luxury pickup truck, the Lincoln

Blackwood, at the factory where it produces its F-series

pickups.

The strong sales of light trucks are driving auto manufacturers

to expand, but in doing so they are gambling that the US

economy will just keep on growing. It's a big gamble, but right

now, judging from booming auto sales figures, a recession

seems improbable in the US.