New study finds MMT gasoline additive is damaging environment
By WOJTEK DABROWSKI
 

TORONTO (CP) - The controversial gasoline additive MMT is bad for the environment, says a study by the Canadian auto industry that found the chemical significantly increases vehicle emissions.
 

The additive is often added to gasoline to increase the octane, or power, of the fuel.
 

"This study confirms that MMT is detrimental to the effective operation of vehicle emission controls systems and is ultimately harmful to the environment," said Robert Armstrong, president of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers of Canada.
 

"Action must be taken quickly to remove this additive from gasoline in Canada."
 

The study, released Tuesday by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers Association, the AIAMC and the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, says seven out of eight passenger cars failed emission certification standards when driven over time on gasoline containing MMT.
 

The groups called the study the largest and most comprehensive of its kind, costing more than $8 million US.
 

Ottawa tried banning cross-border sales of MMT in 1997 over health and environmental concerns, but failed a year later when in it was forced to drop the ban after a trade complaint by Ethyl Corp. of Richmond, Va.
 

The ban didn't stand because of a lack of scientific evidence. The government also paid the company $13 million in an out-of-court damage settlement.
 

Ethyl, in turn, agreed to drop a NAFTA complaint and a claim of $250 million US in damages.
 

At the time, studies began to emerge suggesting that low-level exposure to manganese in the additive can cause memory impairment and tremors.
 

An Environment Canada spokesman was unavailable to comment on the latest findings Tuesday.
 

The study, which looked at cars fuelled with and without gasoline containing MMT, began in 1996. First, 56 vehicles from six autoamkers were driven for up to 160,000 kilometres and then were tested for emissions at specific intervals. A total of 5.84 million kilometres were driven during the six-year evaluation.
 

The study showed that MMT-fuelled, low-emission vehicles, compared with vehicles driven on non-additive gasoline for 160,000 kilometres, had:
 

-31 per cent higher hydrocarbon emissions,
 

-24 per cent higher oxides of nitrogen emissions and
 

-14 per cent higher carbon monoxide emissions.
 

Hydrocarbons are unburned or partially burned fuel molecules that react in the atmosphere to form ground-level ozone - a major component of smog.
 

Some hydrocarbons are toxic and may cause cancer or other health problems. Carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides are gases that, at elevated concentrations, can be a health threat to people and animals and damaging to plants.
 

Category > Health