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Originally Posted by Chris T
It's not nearly as bad as you think. Thanks to catalytic converters, car exhaust is basically nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Quite useful for the suicidal but not directly harmful to the passing pedestrian (except for CO2 being a greenhouse gas of course).
Trying to make a direct comparison between tobacco smoke and car exhaust is yet another red herring.
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Just to add something to this discussion, I thought I'd mention some of the lovely stuff you're breathing-in every time a diesel-powered car drives past you.
Diesel exhaust contains 20-100 times more particles than petrol exhaust. These particles carry cancer-causing substances known as polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Gases in diesel exhaust, such as nitrous oxide, nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, benzene, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide can also create health problems.
(source: www.amicustheunion.org - the UK's largest manufacturing, technical & skilled persons' union.)
Incidentally, a lot of those chemicals are also found in cigarette smoke, so there actually is a direct correlation between tobacco smoke and car exhaust fumes.