New Study Indicates Use of Catalytic Converters Causing Metallic Fallout Hazards

The rapid adoption by the car industry of catalytic converters for petrol engines that reduce the quantities of toxic nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbon pollutants entering the atmosphere has significantly improved air quality, particularly in busy towns and cities. However, this improvement comes at a price, according to Italian scientists who have studied the metallic fallout from catalytic converters.

Claudio Botrè of the University of Rome and Alessandro Alimonti of the Italian National Institute of Health in Rome and their colleagues explain that the increasing numbers of catalytic converters on the road has led to rising environmental levels of the metals used as the catalysts in these devices - platinum, rhodium, palladium, and iridium. The team has published their detailed findings in the International Journal of Environment and Health.

The team analysed air particulate samples collected from two typically busy sites in Rome over the winter of 2004-2005. They used mass spectrometry to determine the chemical constituents of the samples. Their initial findings confirmed that vehicle exhausts, as opposed to hospital incinerators and industrial sites, are the main source of platinum and related metals in the urban environment.


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sold2early - 3/28/2007 2:58:09 PM

+1 Boost

How much air would I need to collect to make a Platinum necklace for the wife?

nvme - 3/29/2007 12:27:37 PM

+1 Boost

Finding hazardous material in the air in a city as large as Roma doesn't mean it comes from the cars! I am curious to know how they differenciate shit coming from a car's exhaust, from the same shit coming from somewhere else? The issue here is the heavy anti-car climate wanted and orchestrated all over Europe! BS!