http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19323/story.htm
Smoke to get in Manila eyes, at least for a while PHILIPPINES: January 8, 2003 MANILA - Smoggy skies over the Philippine capital will take a little longer to clear after motorcycle taxi drivers won a reprieve this week from the Clean Air Act that came into force at the start of the year. Hundreds of drivers brought traffic to an even slower crawl than usual in parts of Manila as they took their vehicles in a procession to the presidential palace to protest against the new anti-pollution law. The Clean Air Act calls for emission tests and the phasing out of two-stroke engines. Under the law, which also calls for fewer additives in gasoline and other measures to cut the haze hanging over the nation's largest cities, drivers of Manila's 120,000 motorcycle taxis must use cleaner but more expensive four-stroke engines. The government, allowing drivers more time to comply, said it would set up a committee of transportation officials, motorcycle taxi operators, manufacturers and non-governmental organisations to discuss the issues. "I believe the government will fulfill its end of the bargain," Ariel Lim, president of the National Confederation of Tricycle Operators and Drivers Associations, told reporters. "If it fails, we may hold another protest and it cannot blame us." The drivers and operators may have won the day but the country of 80 million people has been losing the battle against smog and its ill effects on health. In November, the World Bank warned that air pollution would cost the Philippines almost $1.5 billion per year in medical treatment, lost wages and low productivity. A study by the World Bank showed fine particle emissions caused an estimated 2,000 premature deaths and 9,000 cases of chronic bronchitis each year in the nation's four largest cities. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://webconx.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
