Why do people drive unnecessarily large cars (AKA "SUVS")?

So now the 1300 premature deaths each year due to air pollution join the 200 deaths on the road to become non-issues.

How many people have to die before something becomes an issue?

It was posted in response to data that isn't solely linked to car emissions.

But don't let that get in the way of your disingenuous manner of posting.

It was posted to respond to the broad claim that "Air pollution in Ireland is a non-issue".

I chucked it in with the '200 deaths on the road' as the poster I'm replying to has repeatedly told us about how those 200 deaths don't matter either.

This is all gone a long way from talking about the relative sizes of cars and SUVs.

Anyway, a challenge for anyone who wants to take it up - have a look at the studies and reports behind that figure of 1,300 deaths. Note how the WHO uses the terms "linked to" and "attributed to", which is different from the "caused by" that the EPA has somehow chosen to use. Doesn't help that the EPA's misinterpretation is constantly repeated by the media and others (e.g. Irish Heart Foundation, Asthma Society, etc.)

Consider too how the figure of 1,300 relates specifically to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which is mainly associated with solid fuel burning, domestic cooking & cleaning, and even natural sources such as pollen, dust, and sea spray. On the contrary, deaths linked with NOx - most closely associated with vehicular emissions - are in the region of only 50 per year.

Means that even the staunchest member of the anti-motoring brigade who sometimes lights a fire (even with low smoke fuel), cooks dinner and cleans up afterwards, and mows the lawn, is contributing more to the issue than a motorist out for a drive.

Finally - if you can find it, because it takes a lot of digging - have a look at the somewhat spurious way in which these deaths are linked to air pollution in the first place. It would be a bit like saying the death of a construction worker who fell from scaffolding was linked to driving (or cycling) because he'd driven (or cycled) to the site that morning.

It is factually correct.

But continuously disingenuous in it's premise and use in which you, conveniently, lump two number together in attempt falsely increase death numbers.

Wait till you hear about all the people who manage to heat their house, cook their dinner, clean up afterwards, and mow the lawn without creating toxic emissions.

I'm sure you have that number to hand. And those that do all those things without creating toxic emissions use items that weren't constructed in factories and transported by vehicles that would create toxic emissions…..

I await the twisting depths you'll go to next.

Well I read the article you relied on plus looked at the air quality modelling and air quality report myself so I don't need to ask him. So not really even a 'touch' disingenuous.

But let's hear more about your new misdirection "about all the people who manage to heat their house, cook their dinner, clean up afterwards, and mow the lawn without creating toxic emissions."

Nothing of which has anything remotely to do with cars ("unnecessarily" large or otherwise) but you'll tenuously link any argument you can rather than stop this nonsense.

Good to hear that you're on top of it all. How many people was he talking about when he mentioned those "who sometimes lights a fire (even with low smoke fuel), cooks dinner and cleans up afterwards, and mows the lawn"?

How many people was he talking about 

Ah so you are content to continue this absolutely self serving rabbit hole you've as usual attempted to make somehow 'relevant'.

But you first then, tell us the number of "all the people who manage to heat their house, cook their dinner, clean up afterwards, and mow the lawn without creating toxic emissions." ……

“As stated” I used the info from the news clipping you provided, not “his” numbers.

(It’s also telling how you have to masquerade the ‘as stated’ as some sort of ‘gotcha’)

Pulling you up on your increasingly stupid tenuous links you seem intent on making without any semblance of reality is not “slightly obsessed”; one could say your continued avoidance of same by continued reference to “his numbers” is “slightly obsessed”.

But this is the type of disingenuous muddied water debating you strive for.

Wait till you hear about all the people who manage to heat their house, cook their dinner, clean up afterwards, and mow the lawn without creating toxic emissions.

The point, dear boy, is that it's simply not possible to do any of those things without creating emissions of PM2.5, and that PM2.5 is the pollutant linked (albeit spuriously) with 1,300 deaths per year. That's 26 times the number of deaths linked with vehicular emissions of NOx.

If you want to take those WHO figures at face value, somebody who lights a domestic fire in winter or mows their lawn in summer is a far greater threat to all of us than any motorist.

size and weight is a much better way to identify specific vehicles. SUV too vague and is open to interpretation.