The air we breathe is where the fun ends. 3.3 million people die every year as a result of air pollution. 120,000 premature deaths in Germany alone are caused by particulate matter. In addition, 13,000 people die from nitrogen oxides, 7,000 of them from the diesel poison nitrogen dioxide. These morbid statistics are based on a whole series of studies by renowned institutes and WHO figures.

It's all nonsense! That's what more than 100 lung specialists are now saying, thereby touching another sacred cow. According to the scientists, most of the studies on particulate matter and nitrogen oxides are outrageous and unscientific, the health damage caused by diesel is nowhere near as dramatic as is claimed and the EU limit values for particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide are completely nonsensical. If you were to compare the alleged exposure to particulate matter with that of a smoker, which is millions of times higher, every smoker would have to drop dead within a few weeks. A farmer with a cowshed would probably die within a few days. Since neither is obviously the case, something cannot be right here.

Who is right now? Instead of getting to the bottom of the matter, the defense reflex and the belief in one's own infallibility sets in. The public debate has become so ideologically heated that it is no longer conducted objectively. Studies reflect personal convictions rather than the facts. And the desire for self-destruction is only surpassed by the ease with which industries are destroyed and jobs destroyed in the name of the environment.

Criticism is unwelcome. Doubts are hushed up, the doubters are silenced or discredited as the industry's go-betweens. We have a right to clean air. But we also have a right to clean expert opinions. Someone is wrong in this matter. In order to find out the truth, all investigations and therefore also the diesel driving bans need to be re-examined. There is something in the air. Because one way or another, a cow is going down the drain.

Anita Würmser is a business and logistics journalist, initiator of the Logistics Hall of Fame and the IFOY Awards. In LT-manager, "Mutti", as she respectfully calls the industry, has not minced her words exclusively since issue one.