Pollution from rigged German VWs will kill 1,200 people, study shows
Paris — Pollution from 2.6-million Volkswagen (VW) cars sold in Germany between 2008 and 2015, rigged to appear eco-friendly, will cause 1,200 premature deaths in Europe, a study of the fraud’s health effects shows. "The researchers estimate that 1,200 people in Europe will die early, each losing as much as a decade of their life, as a result of excess emissions generated," said researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which took part in the study released on Friday. This corresponded to about €1.9bn in health costs and lost labour productivity, the research showed. Germany will account for about 500 lives lost, only 40% of the projected European toll, according to findings published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Poland is in second place with 160 deaths, followed by France with 84, the Czech Republic with 72, Italy 55, Austria 47, Switzerland 40, Hungary 32, Britain 30 and Romania 27. The same researchers had previously estimated that excess ...
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