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The Health Problems Caused by Gasoline and Car Exhaust Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., and Robert J. Cihak, M.D., The Medicine Men Can you imagine if our leaders, 50 years ago, had the concern and courage and spent the time and money to develop cleaner renewable energy sources rather than lean on gasoline? How many wars, uprisings and terrorist attacks would have been prevented? How many lost lives, maimings, crippling injuries and lost limbs would have been averted? How many health problems, acute and chronic illnesses, heart and lung problems, and cancers would have been avoided? Currently, control of the Middle East oil fields gives immense wealth, control and power to these nations. But with such power should have come responsibility. Unfortunately, most of these nations have shown little propensity for responsibility. Had our own oil companies put national welfare over greed, many alternate sources of renewable energy would have been developed and brought to market decades ago. Who knows how many patents are languishing?
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The fundamental issue is the energy "mix" that we use. The problem with cars is that gasoline is still the easiest way to fuel them. Until hybrids or electric cars really catch on, or whatever, we're stuck. Ethanol from corn seems to take more energy to produce than it's worth currrently, but at least it cuts down on oil. Using wind to replace oil heating or to replace natural gas or oil-fired electricity-generating plants makes sense. It's certainly cleaner. In addition, since this is allegedly a medical column, lets take a gaze and glance at the plethora of medical illnesses associated with car exhausts and gasoline. And let's credit one American company (General Electric) that is putting hundreds of millions of dollars into developing renewable energy sources. Exposure From Gasoline and Car Exhaust Gasoline is a complex mixture of petroleum hydrocarbon. Typically, gasoline contains more than 150 chemicals, including small amounts of benzene, toluene, xylene and sometimes lead. Gasoline is used mostly as fuel for motor vehicles, though sometimes it is used as a solvent. One is exposed to gasoline or its vapors in the following ways:
Health Problems Caused by Gasoline Health problems caused by gasoline can either be acute, which occur immediately or within a few days of exposure, or they can be chronic, which are long-term health effects. Exposure to gasoline can result in: irritation to the eyes, nose, and throat (repeated exposure can cause permanent eye damage), often with headache or nausea; coughing, wheezing (repeated high exposure may damage the lungs); skin irritation (dermatitis); drying and cracking of the skin; and when used as a degreaser, gasoline removes the protective fat from skin.
Higher Levels of Exposure May Cause: Fatigue, blurred vision, dizziness, weakness, slurred speech, confusion, seizures, convulsions, coma, death, possible liver or kidney damage, and cancer (possible kidney cancer). If the liquid reaches the lung, damage to the lung tissue may occur, causing a 'chemical' pneumonitis.
A Good Neighbor According to the Stamford Advocate, January 6, 2006, "GE [is] Committed To a New Generation [of] ecomagination." "GE's renewable energy portfolio includes solar, biomass, hydro, wind and geothermal power." General Electric Co.'s Stamford-based GE Energy Financial Services is delving deeper into renewable energy with a $51 million investment in a wind power farm located on an Indian reservation in California. The 50-megawatt Kumeyaay wind project near San Diego will produce enough power for about 30,000 homes and will save about 110,000 tons a year in greenhouse gas emissions. After eight months of construction and a month of testing, the farm's 25 turbines began churning out energy last Friday, feeding power into the San Diego Gas & Electric grid. GE Energy Finance partnered with the project's sponsor Babcock & Brown, a Australian global investment and advisory firm, which has six wind facilities in the United States that soon will go into service. This recent investment reflects the GE unit's growing interest in renewable resource energy generation fits into the company's "ecomagination" strategy – a company-wide initiative to expand its portfolio of "cleaner" energy products. The unit invests about $3 billion a year in energy projects and several hundred million dollars of that budget goes to renewable energy. "There is a lot of investment interest," said Christine Real de Azua, a spokesperson of the American Wind Energy Association. "Wind energy is still a small part of the U.S. electricity supply," she said, adding that currently less than 1 percent of energy is produced by wind. "We think it is feasible that wind will supply 6 percent of electricity by 2020," Azua said.
In sum, our leaders should spend less time enriching themselves and their buddies by warring for oil – and more in developing cleaner renewable energy sources. This will not only rectify our nation socially, economically, politically and morally – but also immensely improve our health and quality of life. IMAGINE all the wars, deaths, limb losses and illnesses we could have prevented. Editor's Note: Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., wrote this week's punditry. Contact Drs. Glueck and Cihak by e-mail. Robert J. Cihak, M.D., is a Senior Fellow and Board Member of the Discovery Institute and a past president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., is an award winning writer who comments on medical-legal issues and is a Visiting Fellow in Economics and Citizenship at the International Trade Education Foundation of the Washington International Trade Council.
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