- "conflicts" 'none I just think of the children'
We here would have the perspective to know that is a weak unimaginative argument.
People in charge of institutions do have conflicts lile the feeling to keep the status quo
Keep the institution alive and research budgets the same even when analysis might show its best spent elsewhere.

And emotional appeal about children is not scientific. QALDs for both children and adults is a better measure.

Conflict of interest doesn't have to be direct corruption : it can be unknown to the person and subconscious like fitting in with relatives and friends.

Once a campaign gets rolling it can aquire conflicts of interests within it particularly about keeping funding.
Neverless funding does not mean a claim is wrong. Thats why you should look at the actual data , but always be skeptical whatever the source not just take things at face value

@Pcar said Jan 6, 2017 at 1:39 AM
\\
It's back to pre-industrial revolution times. Next will be Horse/Ox powered power stations " 'cause they're renewable/green"
China, India etc are laughing at us destroying our economies.//

@SandyS replied at 10:17 AM
\\Here in France there seems to be a daily campaign against the internal combustion engine. Either from Paris or the Alps. I reckon France is heading back to the horse quicker than the UK. Today, for the first time that I've heard, someone mentioned wood fires as a contributor. When out on the bike, even on the N147, at this time of year the smell of woodsmoke is everywhere and certainly much more prevalent than diesel fumes.
Now the copy and paste journalists of the snowflake generation has taken on board the internal combustion enginein general and diesel in particular are the work of the devil than there's no going back.//

@Sandy I suspect such a PR campaign to build a narrative that EVs are a magic solution.
And it looks like someone just sent out more PR
Cos Today's Times frontpage headline is :
Diesel cars pumping out twice the toxins of lorries and buses 11 hours ago

Sadiq Khan's July 2016 PR hypes but doesn't directly target diesel or suggest banning them

Wow see the huge list of scare stories on the KCL page

I suspect such a PR campaign to build a narrative that diesel cars are evil and electric cars are a magic solution.
Here's the start of the Times Text

"(Image : Nitrogen oxides from diesel engines can inflame the lungs and cause respiratory diseases such as asthma)

Modern diesel cars produce more than twice as much toxic gas as a lorry or bus of the same age, analysis has found.

There is less risk of inhaling dangerous levels of nitrogen oxides from standing beside a new lorry or bus with its engine running than standing beside a car, according to the research. The results strengthen the case for tougher pollution tests for cars, which will be debated this month by EU states.

About 25,000 deaths a year in England can be linked to vehicle emissions, and nitrogen oxides from diesel engines are one of the main pollutants. They inflame the lungs, cause respiratory diseases such as asthma and have been linked to a raised risk of heart attacks, strokes and cancer. Pollution…"

"twice as much toxic gas" ??
One of those floppy journalism emotional phrases
.. I guess they using it for shorthand to mean particulates and NOx which in fact are a tiny proportion of what comes out the exhaust .

____________
Y&Y on Radio 4 coming up within the next 30 mins

"Do anti-pollution cycle masks work? We'll hear from a manufacturer and a government expert on air pollution."

OK that Y&Y didn't mention diesel at all even though the respiratory expert Harry Cole from KCL was on
He said
- Long term we need "cleaner public transport systems"
- Short term : surgical mask are too flimsy so better take a less trafficked route.
Mask corp guy said don't be put off by seeing some dust on your mask. Use one of my £25 masks I'm making good profits.

Surely main problem is traffic density. You could design urban zones to not have big busy junctions but spread traffic movements thru lots of little roads. The prog didn't mention anywhere of the London bubbleworld.

@Tomo ..an alternative to my conspiracy scenario that its driven by EV mafia : Is it all being driven by Client Earth or something ? Like did some Yank given them a massive donation and say spend this within 2 years ?
Cos there feels something fishy about it all. A fingerprint of "PR not Science"
There is real world with real risk that you cost and quantify with QALDs etc but with anti diesel narrative the arguments seem much more PR than science.
The news story carries over into the Times main editorial where the stress is :
- 'tens of thousands of people' dying
. ...em no they not .. The fig comes from a statistical attempt to represent total harm across the whole population.
- 'proven connection between traffic and dementia'
... No this a possible hypothesis raised by ONE brand new study ..it is certainly not proven science.

Turns out the Times frontpage article is only about NOx.
So what about Ad Blue systems which is touted as a magic solution to NOx ?

The printed article goes on to say
"Pollution increases the risk of dementia for those living next to a busy road"
!!! That was the study reported yesterday. On R4Today the guy behind the research specifically said his research did NOT conclude that ! correlation is not proof of causation he said.

"Barry Gardiner former shadow environment minister.. has admitted it (lower diesel prices) was the wrong decision."
.... Why quote him ?... he was fired after about 2 weeks cos of his car crash interview with AF Neil where he claimed the UK is a massive gas exporter.

The stats is shows
ICCT analysis said the LATEST diesel produce lorries and buses produce 210 mg of Nitogen oxides/Km
- and NEW cars 500mg
* dingaling suspiciously round number.
Buried away on page 4 they say "the legal limit is 80mg/but this has only ever been achieved in laboratory conditions "
.... Doesn't that mean the law is BS ?

Then the article moves to page 29 as the Times lead editorial
Choke Point
Britain needs a Clean Air Act to stop vehicle pollution that is killing tens of thousands of people a year.

Here's the rest of what you can see outside the paywall.
Even though they put a caveat the rest of it continues to assume wrongly that yesterday's research proved.trafffic causes dementia.
"Air pollution kills. Even when it merely hastens the onset of heart and lung disease, it is the most serious and costly occupational hazard of city life. A large-scale Canadian study has now provided strong evidence that living near a busy road also heightens the risk of developing dementia.

The study was conducted in Ontario, which has a population density of 14 people per square kilometre. The figure for Britain is five times higher. As Rob Howard of University College London said yesterday, the Canadian study is “one more important reason why we must clean up the air in our cities”. Yet it is more than that. Even allowing for the caveat that the study establishes a correlation rather than a cause, it serves as ..."

@Pcar No, they wouldn't be that blatant. I think there could be some complex reason why an engine 10 times the sizes does not emit 10 times the size doesn't have 10 times the NOx.
Might be something like it achieves higher average running temp and therefore facilitates the filtering process etc.
The figs would probably be ball park, possibly cherry picked in some way.

They seem to be non lab real situation tests , so perhaps transport corps do more and better servicing than car owners.
And maybe car owners spend more time trundling in city traffic... whereas truck fleets pile on the long distance steady miles.
Also maybe cars doing 70mph have bad NOx performance.