Diesel Fumes

[Vulcan]

A friend of mine drives a motorhome and a van, both Diesel. He’s never been the sharpest tool in the box but definitely seems be getting worse these days. Maybe this is the reason?

https://www.news-medical.net/news/2...-exhaust-can-affect-human-brain-function.aspx

 

[Lons]

A friend of mine drives a motorhome and a van, both Diesel. He’s never been the sharpest tool in the box but definitely seems be getting worse these days. Maybe this is the reason?

https://www.news-medical.net/news/2...-exhaust-can-affect-human-brain-function.aspx

Well if the exhaust fumes are leaking into his vehicles then he really is a turnip.

 

[Vulcan]

Well if the exhaust fumes are leaking into his vehicles then he really is a turnip.

You have to get out of the vehicle at some point and I’m sure he doesn’t turn the engine off every time he does something or other outside of it.

 

[niemeyjt]

I wonder what the cause is?

Particulates that can be filtered or gasses that are harder to avoid?

 

[Tris]

Westminster, surrounded by buses and taxis. QED

 

[Henniep]

A friend of mine drives a motorhome and a van, both Diesel. He’s never been the sharpest tool in the box but definitely seems be getting worse these days. Maybe this is the reason?

https://www.news-medical.net/news/2...-exhaust-can-affect-human-brain-function.aspx

I understood that diesel fumes are more toxic than petrol fumes, from combustion engines?

 

[Alpha-Dave]

The article doesn’t really explain how the ‘booth’ works. I wonder if the oxygen content of the air with the diesel fumes was low, which would explain the temporary effect.

 

[RogerS]

The article doesn’t really explain how the ‘booth’ works. I wonder if the oxygen content of the air with the diesel fumes was low, which would explain the temporary effect.

Rather than waste time reading a selectively edited snapshot, I offer you the actual report here

https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-023-00961-4

 

[Alpha-Dave]

Rather than waste time reading a selectively edited snapshot, I offer you the actual report here

https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-023-00961-4

Hmm, it still doesn’t describe the experimental set up, other than “DE (nominal concentration: 300 µg of particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less [PM2.5]/m3) exposure occurred for 120 min”, which links to this article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/08958378.2011.562256 which describes the booth as:

“Methods: An EPA Tier 3-compliant, 6.0 kW diesel generator is operated under discrete cyclic loads to simulate diesel on-road emissions. The engine accepts standard ultra-low sulfur diesel or a variety of alternative fuels (such as biodiesel) via a partitioned tank. A portion of raw exhaust is drawn into the primary dilution system and is diluted 9:1 with compressed air at standard temperature (20°C) and humidity (40%) levels. The exhaust is further diluted approximately 25:1 by high efficiency particulate air (HEPA)-filtered air (FA) and then aged for 4 min before entering the 4 × 6 × 7-foot exposure booth.”

So with a 225:1 dilution ratio then we can probably assume that the O2 content is not significantly affected.

There is no question for me that PM2.5 particles are bad for you (and PM1 being even worse as they can more easily cross into blood stream), but the temporary effect here is what surprises me, hence my suspicion that there may be a different mechanism for the effect observed.

I also somewhat wonder on how the generator’s exhaust compares to a vehicle exhaust, which often have particulate filters, but there are many older vehicles that don’t.

 

[Vulcan]

It’s not just particulates, NOx is bad as well.