{"id":16400,"date":"2025-02-09T16:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T16:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=16400"},"modified":"2025-02-09T16:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T16:06:09","slug":"gigantic-suvs-are-a-public-health-threat-why-dont-we-treat-them-like-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=16400","title":{"rendered":"Gigantic SUVs are a public health threat. Why don\u2019t we treat them like one?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“With an annual toll of 40,000 American lives<\/a>, the deadliness of secondhand smoke is now common knowledge. But it was only a few decades ago that puffing on a cigarette was defended as an act that affected only the smoker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1980s, researchers for the first time demonstrated that smoking can kill people who never themselves lit a cigarette. Those findings undercut tobacco industry claims that smoking need not be restricted, because smokers had accepted any health risk arising from their habit. Even if that was true, it certainly wasn\u2019t for others forced to breathe polluted air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondhand smoke galvanized the anti-smoking movement. \u201cYou\u2019re suddenly not talking about suicide,\u201d said Robert Proctor<\/a>, a history professor at Stanford University. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about homicide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the 1990s, smoking was banned on domestic flights<\/a> as well as across an expanding number of bars, restaurants, and workplaces. Tobacco use tumbled: In 2000, 25 percent of Americans said they smoked a cigarette<\/a> during the prior week, down from 38 percent in 1983.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondhand smoke is a textbook example of a negative externality: a product\u2019s costs that are paid by society instead of its users. It\u2019s a framework that helped turn the public against tobacco, and it carries lessons for another product that is as ubiquitous today as cigarettes were 50 years ago. And like tobacco, its use can \u2014 and often does \u2014 kill innocent bystanders. I\u2019m talking about oversized cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the last half-century, American sedans and station wagons have been replaced by increasingly enormous SUVs and pickup trucks that now comprise 80 percent of new car sales<\/a>, a phenomenon known as car bloat<\/a>. Much like secondhand smoke, driving a gigantic vehicle endangers those who never consented to the danger they face walking, biking, or sitting inside smaller cars. Although not widely known, car bloat\u2019s harms are well-documented. Heavier vehicles can pulverize modest-sized ones<\/a>, and tall front ends obscure a driver\u2019s vision<\/a>, putting pedestrians and cyclists at particular risk. Deaths among both groups recently hit 40-year highs in the US<\/a>. The threat of hulking vehicles could even deter people from riding a bike or taking a stroll, a loss of public space akin to avoiding places shrouded in tobacco smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite ample research<\/a> demonstrating car bloat\u2019s harms, American policymakers have done virtually nothing to counteract them. The political headwinds are powerful: Encouraged by carmaker ads depicting SUVs traversing rugged terrain, millions of Americans use oversized vehicles daily simply to get to an office, store, or school.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/391733\/gigantic-suvs-are-a-public-health-threat-why-dont-we-treat-them-like-one<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“With an annual toll of 40,000 American lives, the deadliness of secondhand smoke is now common knowledge. But it was only a few decades ago that puffing on a cigarette was defended as an act that affected only the smoker.
\nIn the 1980s, researchers for the first time demonstrated that smoking can kill people who never themselves lit a cigarette. Those findings undercut tobacco industry claims that smoking need not be restricted, because smokers had accepted any health risk arising from their habit. Even if that was true, it certainly wasn\u2019t for others forced to breathe polluted air.<\/p>\n

Secondhand smoke galvanized the anti-smoking movement. \u201cYou\u2019re suddenly not talking about suicide,\u201d said Robert Proctor, a history professor at Stanford University. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about homicide.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of the 1990s, smoking was banned on domestic flights as well as across an expanding number of bars, restaurants, and workplaces. Tobacco use tumbled: In 2000, 25 percent of Americans said they smoked a cigarette during the prior week, down from 38 percent in 1983.<\/p>\n

Secondhand smoke is a textbook example of a negative externality: a product\u2019s costs that are paid by society instead of its users. It\u2019s a framework that helped turn the public against tobacco, and it carries lessons for another product that is as ubiquitous today as cigarettes were 50 years ago. And like tobacco, its use can \u2014 and often does \u2014 kill innocent bystanders. I\u2019m talking about oversized cars.<\/p>\n

Over the last half-century, American sedans and station wagons have been replaced by increasingly enormous SUVs and pickup trucks that now comprise 80 percent of new car sales, a phenomenon known as car bloat. Much like secondhand smoke, driving a gigantic vehicle endangers those who never consented to the danger they face walking, biking, or sitting inside smaller cars. Although not widely known, car bloat\u2019s harms are well-documented. Heavier vehicles can pulverize modest-sized ones, and tall front ends obscure a driver\u2019s vision, putting pedestrians and cyclists at particular risk. Deaths among both groups recently hit 40-year highs in the US. The threat of hulking vehicles could even deter people from riding a bike or taking a stroll, a loss of public space akin to avoiding places shrouded in tobacco smoke.<\/p>\n

Despite ample research demonstrating car bloat\u2019s harms, American policymakers have done virtually nothing to counteract them. The political headwinds are powerful: Encouraged by carmaker ads depicting SUVs traversing rugged terrain, millions of Americans use oversized vehicles daily simply to get to an office, store, or school.”<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/391733\/gigantic-suvs-are-a-public-health-threat-why-dont-we-treat-them-like-one<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1092,53],"class_list":["post-16400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-cars","tag-deaths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16401,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16400\/revisions\/16401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}