The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered that the Volkswagen company had fitted its cars with a software commonly known as a ‘defeat device’. The device could detect and change the performance of diesel engines when they were being tested. The Company has admitted to the allegations. The company had been using the marketing campaign of low emissions in their cars to increase its market in the US. EPA discovered that the company’s scandal involved a total of 482,000 cars in the US alone including the models of; Beetle, Passat, Golf, VW-manufactured Audi A3 and Jetta. The Volkswagen admitted having fitted the device to close to 11 million vehicles worldwide ( Blackwelder, 2016) . That includes a total of eight million cars in Europe alone. The result of that has been adverse to the environment given that it resulted in the fact that 90 percent of the vehicles using diesel did not meet the limits of emission.
A NOx emissions increase has adverse effects on the environment. The World Health Organization termed the breach as ‘public health emergency’. The high concentration of NO2 in the environment leads to excessive irritations to the airways and cause respiratory issues like wheezing, coughing and breathing difficulties. It also leads to aggravation of respiratory conditions like the increase in susceptibility to the infections of respiratory tract and asthma. ‘The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, in the UK, claims that the increase in exposure to particular harmful matter from the increased car emissions is estimated to cause a reduction in the UK life expectancy by a time range of six months. To add to that, Defra has also estimated that the rate of death in the UK has increased by 4% as a result of the increased NOx emission into the environment. This is also equivalent to 23,500 increases in the number of deaths per year. The emissions have also been costly to the economy leading a cost of £16 billion in the services of public health, yearly ( Blackwelder, 2016) .
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To understand the effects of the scandals to the environment, it will be important to examine the meaning of increased NOx emissions to the environment. First, it leads to the formation of the ground-level ozone which is normally referred to as smog. It is formed when there is a reaction of sunlight with heat. The smog damages crop yields and vegetation and further leads to health complications ( Blackwelder, 2016) . Another effect of the smog formation is that it causes acid rain. The acid rain damages forests and causes streams and lakes to become poisonous and acidic. The acidity in the rain also leads to damaging effects on cars, buildings, and monuments. Other effects include global warming and the deterioration of water quality.
The Volkswagen emission scandal cannot be taken for granted because of the grave effects it has caused for the environment. The Volkswagen scandal clearly demonstrates the selfishness of some of the major companies. These companies are interested in profit making over the welfare of the society in terms of environmental pollution. The world health organization and other relevant bodies and organizations should come up with laws and regulations that will regulate the operations of the companies. For that practice to stop, there will be a need for more intervention and pooling together of resources and measures to ensure compliance of all the companies to environmental standards.
Reference
Blackwelder, B., Coleman, K., Colunga-Santoyo, S., Harrison, J. S., & Wozniak, D. (2016). The Volkswagen Scandal.
