The Anti-Idling Zone Conspiracy

Up until I read about what I now call the Idle Free Zone Conspiracy, I was indifferent to Tim Horton's. An almost hyper-green person, I wasn't even up to speed on the disposable cup issue, and the fact that all those hundreds of millions of Tim Horton's cups just go into landfills every year.

The Idle Free Zone Conspiracy was covered very briefly by the CBC in August 2008, and then quickly died and no one is talking about it. I think it DOES need to be discussed however, and I think people have to decide if Tim Horton's was really acting as an honest corporate citizen in this matter, or if they were acting just like the tobacco companies throughout most of the 20th century, paying for research that said that smoking doesn't cause cancer, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Before I get to the main facts of the "case" - we need to cover some background material:

a)We all know that C02 emissions from vehicles cause climate change, but we're starting to lose sight of how bad air pollution actually is. A bit of a summary of air pollution research is midway through this post, but here's some local (for Ontarians) info: For 2005, the Ontario Medical Association attributed 5800 deaths in southern Ontario to smog. In 2007, Toronto Public Health found that vehicle emissions ALONE cause 440 deaths per year in Toronto, with an additional 1700 hospitalizations, and 1200 acute bronchitis episodes suffered by children.

b) To educate people about the dangers of idling, the federal government's Natural Resources Canada ministry runs the Idle Free Zone website.

c) Companies like Tim Horton's, which are heavily dependent on drive-through traffic, have been coming increasingly under fire by environmentalists for the effect of their drive-throughs on the environment and on air pollution.

So that's the background. And before I lay out the gist of the conspiracy, here is the CBC story on the topic (their radio newscasts covered it as well), and partial coverage from the Toronto Star regarding the study funded by Tim Horton's that I'm angry about:
CBC: Feds revamp stance on idling after meeting with drive-thru group

Toronto Star: Drive-through ban eyed for city vehicles

Okay, here goes... The Idle Free Zone Conspiracy:

a) Before it was changed, the Idle Free Zone website showed images of young children coughing due to plumes of emissions from idling cars, told drivers to limit their idling to 10 seconds, and gave detailed information on the effects of C02 emissions on people's health.

b) Because the Idle Free Zone website was being used by anti-idling community groups to do awareness raising events about the dangers of drive-throughs, Tim Horton's obviously needed to get rid of it.

c) Tim Horton's contracts with a group called RWDI Consultants in Guelph. Tim Horton's ask them to run a study to determine which is worse for the environment - idling in the drive-through line, or parking your car, walking into the restaurant, and restarting your car again upon leaving.

d) RWDI's Tim Horton's funded study finds that it is better for the environment to idle your car than it is to park and walk into the restaurant. See more on this below.

e) Tim Horton's hands this study to the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association and sends them to meet with Natural Resources Canada about the Idle Free Zone website.

f) The CRFA meets with Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn on Feb. 7, 2008.

g) On Feb. 8, Lunn sends out an email asking his staff to take down the Idle Free Zone website.

h) Five months later, a watered down version of the website is put back up, without any of the strong language / images /stats that had been used previously (and the "its safe to idle" timeframe was raised from 10 seconds to 60 seconds).

AND SOOO... a government website which was meant to protect the health of Canadians is altered so that it doesn't impinge upon Tim Horton's drive-through revenues.

And let's talk about the Tim Horton's funded study by RWDI: In the Toronto Star article, dated Feb 15, 2008, Tim Horton's spokesperson Nick Javor says that the study will be peer-reviewed and published that spring (ie a year ago now). I've been in touch with RWDI, and a year later, this study is NOT published, it has NOT been supported (through the peer-review process) by any other experts in this field, NOR is it available to the public.

SO - one single unpublished study was used to strike down one of our government's websites. That's bull&*%t. I mean, how did they do this study? What time of day did they run it? At 9:00pm when cars were probably whipping through the drive-through line fairly quickly? What types of cars did they use to study the emissions caused by idling - super efficient Hondas and Toyotas like the Honda Fit? Did they do the study in the fastest Tim Horton's drive-through in Ontario? OR did they run in at some of the location in Oshawa where the line is so long that people sit idling on the street, slowing down street-traffic, before even getting into the Tim Horton's lot?

It's bad enough that the study found exactly what Tim Horton's wanted them to find (that drive-throughs are great for the environment). It's bad enough that a year later this study still isn't published. It's bad enough that NO OTHER RESEARCH IN THE WORLD supports the RWDI study - but what really pisses me off is that Our Government Fell For It!!!

And so... I'm boycotting Tim Horton's. You can't fund companies to perform suspicious research, hand the research to your attack dog lobby group, and strike down a website that was supposed to protect my health, and have my money.