How many kids have you sent to the hospital today? 

How many kids have you sent to the hospital today?

That seems to be the question that the Environmental Working Group is throwing at you in the study it made on how much pollution cars on the road actually emit and its effect on the health of the public, especially on children. According to EWG, each of us who drives one of the 204 million cars and trucks registered in the United States shares responsibility for triggering or exacerbating asthma and other respiratory diseases among our fellow Americans.

EWG found that vehicle pollution varies widely based not only on the type of vehicle, but also on the year it was built, the number of miles it has been driven, the automaker, and the quality of construction. Here are some of their findings:

• Among the largest automakers, Honda, Mazda, Hyundai and Nissan stand out as performing better than their competitors. Cars from General Motors and Daimler-Chrysler were more polluting.

• Four-year-old cars with 80,000 to 100,000 miles on the odometer, on average, emit nearly twice as much smog-forming chemicals per mile as cars with 20 to 40,000 miles.

• Even typically clean models can include a number of extreme polluters. A typical 2000 Honda Civic with automatic transmission was almost as clean as today's cleanest new cars. But fully one-tenth of the 2000 Civics tested emitted 6.5 times more pollution than the typical ones.

To learn more, click here. To avoid contributing further to the pollution from cars, choose a cleaner, more fuel efficient car; practice better driving habits and maintain your car properly. Should you need quality auto parts such as Saturn catalytic converters, Pontiac wheels, or Ford engine parts, just click over to Auto Parts Inner.