Auckland cars produce more air pollution than in Los Angeles

4.00pm

A roadside study of more than 40,000 Auckland cars has found between 30 and 40 per cent exceed American exhaust emission limits.

The cars were tested by a roadside sensor taken to various sites around Auckland.

Mitch Williams from the University of Denver said many of the drivers would not know their cars were polluting the atmosphere.

"We were testing for carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbons. These are things you can't see or can't tell without a test if there is pollution.

"The car runs fine, everything feels fine therefore the drivers don't think their emissions are bad seeing they don't see smoke."

Mr Williams was brought to New Zealand by the Auckland Regional Council to measure the pollution produced by vehicles on Auckland roads.

However, he said while there were emission standards in the United States, there were none in New Zealand and the large number of Auckland cars exceeding the American limits was not a surprise.

He said the cars would not have been tuned for some time, they may be cars imported without emission control equipment, or they may be old cars.

"They range from slightly broken which just need a little tune up, to some which if you park in your garage and turn on for 30 seconds they would kill you."

Mr Williams said the American equivalent of the New Zealand warrant of fitness would not allow cars back on the road if they failed emission tests.

He said in Auckland about 30 per cent of the polluting cars produced about 80 per cent of the pollution.

A well tuned car should produce less than one per cent carbon monoxide and less than 100 parts per million of hydrocarbons.

The worst petrol-powered Auckland cars were producing 12 per cent carbon monoxide.

He said Auckland produced two to three times more pollution than Los Angeles but sea breezes cleared Auckland's air far more quickly.

"Our research group when we came out here, expected it to be much much worse (than America) because there are no regulations and no controls."

Mr Williams said the ARC was concerned about cleaning up the Auckland air but no one had ever measured the level of vehicle pollution.

He said cars should fail their warrants of fitness for exceeding emission standards and the Government should insist that new cars were fitted with catalytic converters and other emission control equipment.

"It is a concern. Something needs to be done relatively quickly as far as getting rules in place."

He said cleaning cars up so they passed emission tests at their warrants of fitness checks was a temporary fix, but a longer-lasting solution meant allowing only new cars with new emission control technology.

Graeme Barlow, a consultant to the New Zealand motor vehicle industry, said new cars coming into New Zealand complied with tight overseas emission controls.

However, he said imported cars were often six or eight years old and contained relatively old emission control technology. Some of the technology may no longer be working, he said.

Virtually all new cars brought into the country complied with European, Japanese, Australian and European emission standards.

"The major markets of the world share very similar emission controls. They have been getting closer and closer over the last 10 years," he said.

- NZPA

Auckland Regional Council: Vehicle Pollution