Following pressure from environmental groups which were backed by a federal court ruling in their favour, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has now found that emissions from aircraft endanger human health.
This followed some years of study where the EPA adopted nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission standards and related provisions for aircraft gas turbine engines with rated thrusts greater than 26.7 kilonewtons - used primarily on commercial passenger and freight aircraft.
It also provided the organic gas speciation profile for use in emission inventories of aircraft equipped with turbofan, turbojet, and turboprop engines fuelled with kerosene-based jet-A fuel.
Add to that the EPA also having evaluated the impact of lead emissions from aircraft using leaded aviation gasoline.
All this designed to answer that question of whether these emissions caused or contributed to air pollution which might endanger public health or welfare.
“Its endangerment finding has started a process to regulate emissions from the aviation industry, the latest sector to be regulated under the Clean Air Act,” said a Reuters’ report carried by Airwise News.
“The finding allows the EPA to implement domestically a global carbon dioxide emissions standard being developed by the International Air Cargo Organisation (ICAO).”
The ICAO, meantime, plans to release its CO2 standard for comment in February 2016 and adopt it later in the year.
US agency finds aircraft emissions endanger health
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