What Is the True Cost of Car Ownership?

https://www.treehugger.com/what-is-true-cost-of-car-ownership-5095664

May close to lifting fuel duty freeze to help meet NHS promises

“while motorists have saved hundreds of millions of pounds over the last eight years, the successive freezes are estimated to have cost the Treasury around £46bn since 2011-12, with further losses of £26bn to be incurred by the end of 2020-21. … former government transport advisor Professor David Begg claimed that freezing duty had reduced fuel prices by 13%, resulting in a 4% increase in traffic that had triggered 4.5m tonnes of carbon dioxide”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jul/02/freeze-on-fuel-duty-may-be-lifted-to-help-meet-nhs-promises

Sonic doom: how noise pollution kills thousands each year.

“From heart disease to type 2 diabetes, noise is having dire effects on people’s health. So who is most at risk, what can be done about it – and can you protect yourself?”

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jul/03/sonic-doom-noise-pollution-kills-heart-disease-diabetes

Increased risk for developing cardiovascular diseases
The results published so far show that aircraft, rail and road traffic noise in Switzerland leads to adverse health effects. For cardiovascular disease mortality, the most distinct association was found for road noise. The risk of dying of a myocardial infarction increases by 4 per cent per 10 decibel increase in road noise at home. Also the risk of hypertension and heart failure increases with transportation noise. “Particularly critical are most likely noise events at night regularly disturbing sleep,” says Martin Röösli, principal investigator of SiRENE and professor of environmental epidemiology at Swiss TPH and the University of Basel. “The threshold for negative health impact is lower than previously suspected.”

Noise also favours Diabetes
In addition to cardiovascular diseases, transportation noise also increases the risk of developing diabetes. This is shown by an examination of 2,631 people exposed to different degrees of noise pollution. “Two mechanisms play a role,” explains Nicole Probst-Hensch, Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Swiss TPH. “On the one hand, the chronic release of stress hormones influences insulin metabolism. On the other hand, sleep problems are known to negatively affect metabolism in the long term.”