New York State has the highest health risk from diesel soot in the nation – 14,500 tons of fine particle soot is released from diesel exhaust each year.

Children, the elderly, and persons with asthma or other lung or heart disease have extraordinary vulnerability to airborne pollution.

Children

• Children are particularly vulnerable to air pollution as they breathe, eat and drink more air pound for pound than do adults. They are close to the ground, and, in fact, crawl and play on the ground. Their immune systems are immature.
  
  
• Diesel soot is linked to an increased risk of infant death, decreased lung growth in children and an increased risk in respiratory disease and illness.

Seniors

• Total mortality and cardiovascular mortality in seniors is significantly linked to pollutants in diesel and gasoline exhaust.
  
  
• Soot particles in diesel exhaust negatively affect heart function in seniors, particularly those with existing cardiac problems.

Health | Air Quality | Fuel | Law

Idle-Free NYC Fact Sheet

Idling Hurts Air Quality

Tailpipe fumes contain the six criteria pollutants add to urban smog and contribute to global warming.  This smog kills plants and trees, corrodes our roads, bridges and buildings and consumes our city on hot days.

Idling contributes to global climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, including carbon dioxide (CO2), cause climate change. A serious threat to the planet, overwhelming scientific evidence links climate change to the earth's highest ever average annual temperatures, melting polar ice caps, rising sea levels, increasingly severe weather events, and to the threat of many plant and animal species.

The Greenhouse Effect relates to global warming in that it's the reason why excess heat from the surface of the Earth is not dispersed into space. The glass on a greenhouse allows one type of radiation in, but reduces the amount of another type that can escape--causing the interior of the greenhouse to remain warm. This is what we are experiencing on our planet - gases such as carbon dioxide and methane act as the glass; allowing solar radiation in, but preventing heat from escaping.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions Calculator

National Ambient Air Quality Standards

Air Quality Guide for Ozone

Health | Air Quality | Fuel | Law

Idle-Free NYC Fact Sheet

Idling Wastes Fuel

In recent years the cost of fuel for vehicles has more than doubled and the benefits of idling vs. re-starting the engine have disappeared.  Needless idling dirties your engine burns your hard earned dollars through your exhaust pipe. An idling vehicle is getting 0 miles to the gallon.

And remember ... fossil fuels are a non-renewable resource and are being depleted in the face of ever increasing world demand.

Handy metrics:

• Idling your vehicle for more than just 10 seconds uses more fuel than restarting your engine.
  
  

• Idling your vehicle for 10 minutes uses as much fuel as it takes to travel 5 miles.
  
  

• Idling your vehicle for 10 minutes a day uses more than 27 gallons of fuel a year.*
  

(Source: TheTransportation Program of Natural Resources Canada's Office of Energy Efficiency (OEE) & the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources)

Health | Air Quality | Fuel | Law

Idle-Free NYC Fact Sheet