I kinda thought this whole topic of diesel testing on monkeys last week by the German-makers and a US lab would just come to an end. But today, there's another odd aspect to diesel fume testing. This time...on humans.
The EUGT lobby group (supported by Mercedes, VW, BMW), ended up in a short-term (only a few weeks) test, with 19 guys and 6 gals. Why an unequal number is unknown.
All were presumed healthy prior to the test. They were basically hired out to go and do a short-term sniff/inhalation type study with nitrogen dioxide being introduced into their bodies.
According to WDR (regional public network), they got an exposure to diesel fumes once a week for three hours. No one says why three hours was the magic number. It might have been more legit to do this for one hour per day, continuously for two to four weeks....which would have had the effect of a common guy on the street of some urban center. But that doesn't seem to be the goal here.
Some reaction by the carmakers? Well....yeah, the VW CEO said this was all wrong and unethical.
Who ran this test? Well....in this case, they didn't go to an American lab....they went to a German clinic associated with the University of Aachen (Germany).
Meanwhile, the big explanation behind the test? Well....its said that this was mostly to show some numbers relating to car-mechanics.
All of this has now apparently stirred up a bunch ethical charges that test on monkeys was awful bad, but testing on humans was double-bad.
I paused over all of this hyper-talk by journalists and politicians. You kinda get the impression that while diesel and gas cars have been around for a hundred years or more....no one has ever gone and done much testing on fumes, period. I'm not saying this about just the Germans but across the whole board.
The twenty-five Germans in this diesel test? No one says much but one would assume they are perfectly OK and without any health issues. This might push someone to ask if the big worry of diesel particles is fraudulent in some way....but then you have to wonder if these were altered cars and the test ended up with fake results. Yeah, I am a bit skeptical here.
The end of this story? I think you will see a flurry of German law changes that some national board will have to approve all human or monkey tests in the future....making it just about impossible to do medical tests, and most researchers going to outside country to get lab testing done.
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