Protectia Mediului

CO, NO_x POLLUTION IN BUCHAREST AND THE EFFECT OF CATALYTIC CONVERTERS

 OANA-PUSA SOFRONICIU

This article debates the measures taken by the Romanian authorities to increase sustainability in Bucharest. Significant concentrations of CO and NO_x in the air were registered in the Romanian Capital as result of car emissions. Thus, pollutant emissions became lately a main concern for constructors in automotive industry and for the government as well, and consequently catalytic converters have been introduced in order to diminish the main pollutants (CO, NO_x). But from here another problem aroused: the excess of CO₂ in the exhaust gases from the internal combustion engines. To diminish CO and NO_x emissions, also a differentiated car tax was introduced, which met public negative response. To counterbalance this negative response and meanwhile CO₂ catalytic emissions effects, parallel measures are needed, impacting both on people’s incomes and on air quality. How effective these measures are depend mainly on population’s attitudes and green movements’ actions, but also on other factors as corruption and Orthodoxy.

According to Rizea (2002), after the 1989 Romanian Revolution a trend of massive internal migration from rural to urban areas has been registered. The giant increase in population density in Bucharest has been one of the most important effects of this demographic process. Together with the increase in the number of inhabitants and under the influence of the new free-market conditions, an unprecedented rise in the number of cars driven in the city has been noticed [1]. In 2002, this number was of almost six times higher than the number of cars driven in the city in 1989 (ibid), and many of the cars were more than 14 years old (Economic Commission for Europe, 2001).

CO and NO_x are two of the pollutants emitted in the air as a result of incomplete combustion and chemical reactions inside the internal combustion engines of the cars [2]. As Miller (2003) affirms, CO, NO_x and secondary air pollutants formed by them in the atmosphere cause damages to properties and have a tremendous negative impact on human health. They negatively impact on peoples suffering from asthma and bronchitis, increase susceptibility to respiratory infections, especially to children and the elderly, and cause lung irritation and damage, headaches, nausea, but also heart attacks and angina. According to Rizea (2002), parallel with the increase of the number of cars driven in Bucharest it has been noticed a considerable increase of the number of deaths caused by these respiratory diseases. Moreover, the number of persons suffering from nose and ear tumors and “toxicity related brain affections” (para. 12) also increased. The immediate effect was a high mortality rate registered for the considered population during the last decade [3].

The increased number of studies conducted by researchers at the Public Health Institute (Niciu et al, n.d.) [4] on the subject of health damages caused by air pollution in the main residential areas in Romania shows that the importance of monitoring these pollutants and the necessity to find effective measures to decrease their concentrations in the air has become a must and has awaken the authorities’ awareness [5]. Important incentives from the European Union and other international agreements have played their role and together with government’s and automotive constructors’ already aroused consciousness have determined the implementation of a measure of great importance for considerably reducing CO and NO_x air pollution from internal combustion engines of the cars: catalytic converters [6].

This article argues that the effects of the governmental decision to introduce catalytic converters and additional differentiated eco-taxes can be even further improved by implementing two parallel measures to protect low-income groups from the impact of eco-taxes and to reduce CO₂ pollution resulted from the use of these devices.