AC cars 'no refuge from air pollution'
Motorists and passengers in air-conditioned vehicles are still exposed to air pollution if their vehicles do not have proper pollution-prevention equipment, an expert told a seminar yesterday.
Vichien Chaiya-anongsak, editor of an automobile magazine, yesterday expressed concerns that many people failed to recognise the importance of Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) and a catalytic converter in their vehicles. "These two devices are key equipment that protects them from air pollution," he said at a Pollution Control Department seminar. He said after the vehicles had travelled between 100,000 and 200,000 kilometres, their owners must replace EGR and the catalytic converter with new ones. An EGR costs about Bt300 while each catalytic converter cost nearly Bt10,000. "But most motorists do not get new replacements. Worse still, some technicians do not know the true value of these devices and recommend to some vehicle owners that they remove them," Vichien said. Without the EGR and the catalytic converter, drivers and their passengers were subject to air pollution.
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