diesel-powered vehicles:We no longer need them [Archives:2003/657/Health]

Yasser Mohammed Al-Mayyasi
Old cars which pollute the air with emissions are causing growing environmental and health problems in Yemen. Since 1990, Yemen has been focusing more on its environment administration. An official institution has been charged with environmental affairs and protection for which it provides a number of environmental laws and programs nationwide. As a result, an environmental protection law was issued in 1995, determining the standards of air quantity to insure environmental and public health protection as well as the cultural and urban heritage of historical cities. But it was never activated. Now the government has started to feel the seriousness of the problem, so a special committee was formulated from the Shoura Council in order to study the project adding tax to the fuel price to put an end to damage from old cars.
These procedures come after the negative affects of the secondhand cars and the pollutions it cause for environment specially these shifted to Diesel.
Such negative affects became a disturbing problem threatening the people directly.
The effects of diesel remain a danger that threatens the respiratory system, cancer, and suffering of people living among pollution.
In most of the countries of the world and the Mideast countries, the environment's concerns have become an issue and responsibility that should be held accountable by all the people.
In a country like Yemen, the environment pollution has become evidently clear particularly when diesel-powered vehicles have been found in large quantities in a number of Yemeni cities.
The earth's atmosphere has been covered by fumed smokes and that the man himself along with the environment becomes the only victim of such pollution.
The problem lies in the fact that those imported diesel-powered vehicles have become a tangled problem to get rid of.
Before 1995, there was a few numbers of diesel-powered vehicles.
But nowadays, the number has reached more than 2853 cars, more than 942 private ones and more than 2619 transportation cars.
The number of those diesel-powered vehicles is not found only in Sana'a but also in other governorates of the republic.
According to reports issued by the traffic authority, around 1000 diesel-powered vehicles are found in Sana'a. Those cars are found in large quantities.
Diesel substance is restricted only to agricultural machines and huge trucks and pickups, which are operated in long highways linked cities.
This is because, the atmosphere helps to crumble the particulars of poisons puffed out by those vehicles.
While in cities, smokes that emitted from those vehicles concentrated in the city atmosphere itself. Cities like Sana'a, smoke becomes static in the air because it is surrounded by mountains and that the city itself has become thickly populated and suffers from the shortage of oxygen.
The problem has been increasing day by day and the dangers of the waste materials have threatened our environment and the people's lives.
The problem lies also in the fact that when people themselves are hankering after buying those diesel-powered vehicles because they are too cheap.
A study has confirmed that the waste materials emitted from the those vehicles contain chemical substances which affect the people's live particularly children who are unable to breath the gaseous substances.
Man's exposure to the emitted smokes will affect his expiratory system for a long period of time.
It will also lead to malformation and cancer. The awful odor of diesel causes skin sensitivity and cough.

Economic impact
There is a great negative impact resulting from the random import of diesel-powered vehicles, whether from the neighboring countries or the countries of origin. According to a study, the number of exported cars and vehicles are sold on the Yemeni marginalized markets. The proposed age of those vehicles is too low and therefore they are easily broken down and they are in need of constant spare parts and repairs. In conclusion, what is needed is to stop importing those diesel-powered vehicles.
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