Heavy traffic on I-25 in Denver, Colo. on a hazy, polluted summer afternoon.

Sadly, most Americans, and perhaps most people around the world, don't appear to pay much attention to air pollution.

But that doesn't mean that air pollution -- the majority of it caused by vehicles running on fossil fuels -- doesn't pose a serious risk to human health.

Indeed, research has repeatedly shown that air pollution kills.

Here's more amunition for the anti-air-pollution crusade I'm waging on SolarChargedDriving.Com -- and which I am encouraging as many people as possible to join -->

A recently published study in the online academic journal PLos ONE, which shows a strong correlation with decidedly higher rates of the development of artereoschlerosis, often referred to in layperson's terms as hardening of the arteries, and how close one lives to a major highway.

The study -- which controlled for all important variables -- found that the artery walls of subjects living within 100 meters of highways thickened at more than two times the rate of those who do not live as close to heavily trafficked highways.

More research is needed, say the researchers, in order to establish more definitive conclusions.

However, coupled with the extensive previous research on air pollution that has consistently illustrated air pollution's considerable health impact, it's clear that constant exposure to urban air pollution has multiple negative, and potentially deadly, health consequences for billions of people around the world. This is especially true as pollution levels rise, which, of course, they do the nearer one lives to a major interstate highway.

It's difficult for me to imagine something which could have a bigger, more immediate impact on reducing the air pollution, than running our cars on renewable energy forms such as solar.

That car-caused air pollution doesn't get more coverage in mainstream media outlets in the U.S. is a travesty.

However, even if you -- and I -- can't convince mainstream media, and mainstream society, to take air pollution as seriously as they should, we can do something concrete about attacking this worldwide problem: We can buy an EV/PHEV and power it with solar.

A solar-charged EV kills two giant pollution birds with one stone: It eliminates gas-powered cars and coal-fired electricity.

Short of the world converting to biking and walking, something I would love to see (I regularly bike 20 miles round-trip to work and back), but which is unlikely to occur on a widespread basis, it's difficult for me to imagine something which could have a bigger, more immediate impact on reducing air pollution, than running our cars on renewable energy forms such as solar.

So, if you're a greenie like me, or even if you're not, but you want clean air for your lungs -- and your kids' lungs, please consider solar-charging your next car!

Related articles-->

• What you can do to promote pollution free driving
• Report: EVs + renewable energy = no air pollution
• Ten reasons EV/PHEV + renewables = revolution
• The sun is free

Like this story? Interested in the solar-EV/PHEV synergy? Join our Sun Miles™ Club and start meeting & interacting with other people around the world who want to drive, or already are driving, their cars on sun! Register to join us today!