Atmospheric pollution: contribution of automobiles

Abstract

Summary Since the changes in fuel use patterns, with decreasing coal use over the past 30 years or so, vehicle use has increased enormously to the extent where automobile emissions are the major source of most of the toxic pollutants in urban areas in Europe. This paper summarizes the contribution of automobiles to the emissions of the important toxic pollutants, and to ground-level concentrations in urban areas. A more detailed discussion of particulate matter is given, showing that vehicle emissions represent a smaller fraction of concentrations of this pollutant, compared with carbon monoxide or oxides of nitrogen; long-range transport of precursors of particulate matter can make significant contributions to urban levels. A discussion follows of future patterns of automobile emissions in response to European legislation.