Diesel particulate filters may become compulsory for big-rig trucks in California if plans for new legislation are approved tomorrow (12th December), Mercury News reports.

The California Air Resources Board will meet to discuss proposals to have nearly every truck in the state retrofitted with a filter - which reduces soot emissions by 85 per cent - by 2014.

The move, which would come into effect in 2010, would see around one million drivers affected, with half of that figure registered outside California but still regular users of its freeways.

Dr Thomas Dailey, Chief of Pulmonary Medicine at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Santa Clara, told the news provider: "This is a very big deal. Particulate matter from diesel engines is one of the most toxic substances that we have found.

"Nearly 50 per cent of Californians live within one mile of a freeway. And there is a higher concentration of pollutants there."

If the change becomes enshrined in law, privately-owned heavy truck drivers will need to spend between $15,000 and $20,000 to fit the filter - which makes use of platinum - to the exhausts of their vehicles.

Furthermore, a second phase of the proposals requires all Californian trucks to meet tough emissions standards on 2010 engines as part of a staggered schedule between 2012 and 2022.

A number of critics, including the California Trucking Association, the California Chamber of Commerce and around 100 business groups, have expressed their concerns about the draconian nature of the plans at a time when recession is biting.

Robert Ramorino, President of Roadstar Trucking in Hayward, told the Mercury News: "If this passes over the next five years I'll have to make payments on 30 new vehicles. That's $900,000 a year in payments, which is unfathomable."

Diesel soot has over 40 cancer-inducing chemicals, such as formaldehyde and benzene.



Source:

California proposes rules limiting pollution from nearly all diesel trucks in the state (10/12/08)
http://www.mercurynews.com/centralcoast/ci_11189829?nclick_check=1