Air Pollution, Cancer and the Concerns of U.S. Auto Executives

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently announced that it has classified air pollution as a human carcinogen. Automobile exhaust is a major source of such emissions.  “We now know that outdoor air pollution is not only a major risk to health in general, but also a leading environmental cause of cancer deaths,” said Dr Kurt Straif of the IARC in the organization’s announcement. A recent survey of more than 75 U.S. auto industry and auto supplier executives by Booz and Company /Bloomberg identified top concerns of these industry leaders. The survey found that executives were confident about continued growth of auto sales through 2015. Leading  concerns were the need for continued innovation in vehicle entertainment, telematics, and the “connected car”; the value of aggressive use of incentives to encourage more sales; and fears of a decline in sales growth after 2016.