cars and dry cleaning

I've been noticing more and more environmental news lately, but I'd thought it was just because I have an environmental injury and tend to cherry-pick from six to eight newspapers a day. Now I'm starting to wonder.

From yesterday and today's pickings:

• Reports about lung damage in kids living near freeways is all over the place today.
• BBC2 reported on celebrity CO₂ emissions, which is something I'd actually been wondering about.
• Maryland is considering making some really strict new car emmissions rules, even stricter than California currently has.
• California passed a law phasing out the use of perchloroethylene as a dry cleaning solvent by, well, um, 2023, and they have no idea what dry cleaners should replace it with. The end of the article is today's quote of the day:

  California declared perchloroethylene a toxic chemical in 1991. State health officials told the air board Thursday that it can cause esophageal cancer, lymphoma, cervical and bladder cancer. The solvent, which has a strong, sweet odor, also can affect the central nervous system.
  
  Some business owners disputed those claims.

  That last line, to an EI, comes off pretty much as a punchline, except it's not that funny because some of those people are going to get sick.
• Consumers have short memories, but high gas prices really do have a long-term effect on driving habits.

In personal car news, we finally got the car back yesterday. It passed emissions with flying colors, and we can now report that the Motor Vehicle Department office on the east side of Tucson has the worst air quality of anywhere we've been in the last two years, with the possible exception of the Old Navy store at the mall.