In the United States, handmade labor has generally a high cost. Gardening, plumbing or mechanic work is usually expensive, and that is why, whether for saving or hobby, Americans tend to do many things on their own. In the USA the term "Do It Yourself" is very popular.

According to studies done by the Consulting Company contracted by the spark plugs manufacturers, in the United States, 70 % of the private car owners change their spark plugs by themselves. The person who replaces the spark plugs is the one who will decide which to use.

SOURCE:
Frost & Sullivan Automotive Industry Research Group / England.
The After market Business / USA.
The Auto Channel / USA.

In the United States, 70 % of the private car owners represent 90 million people, who are not experts in automotive mechanics and, as we have said, they change their spark plugs. If they make a mistake deciding which spark plugs to use, they can contribute with a considerable increase in the emission levels of their vehicles, therefore severely affecting the environment, the ozone layer, and America's health.

Silently, unintentionally and without automotive companies being able to do something about it!

Our study has been developed, based on the data known in the United States of America, because the percentage of emissions produced in that United States accounts for 24% of the emissions worldwide. (*) Their emissions reach an average of 5.4 meter tons, per Capita (*). This situation is growing approximately 10% per year.

Based on this data, it is easy to project the environmental impact in the rest of the world.

(*) SOURCE: The Scientific American, April, 2002

Maybe the automobile industry, the manufacturers of spark plugs and the public in general, think that making a mistake in selecting spark plugs is not very common. Unfortunately, that error in the selection is much more common and frequent than what any one could think; so much the statistical report from DOT indicates that 70% of the vehicles in the United States have spark plugs in bad conditions.

And 70% of automobiles in the United States represent a gigantic number of 93 Million Automobiles, unnecessarily and continuously polluting the environment… And that is only the United States of America!!!
Let's calculate then the Worldwide Environmental Impact, of this tendency in the world!

Quantification of the Environmental Impact

Para obtener cifras que nos permitieran cuantificar cual es el impacto que tienen las emisiones en el medio Ambiente, tuvimos que hacer largos y exhaustivos estudios y análisis, respecto de:

El parque automotor norteamericano, su antigüedad promedio y estado estimado de conservación, contando con los datos del DOT relativos al estado en que se encuentran los vehículos, a tiempo de las revisiones técnicas, y efectuando proyecciones con respecto a las distancias promedio recorridas por los mismos.

Volumen de emisiones del parque automotor, en sus diferentes condiciones:

• Nuevo en perfectas condiciones
• Con la antigüedad promedio, con bujías en excelentes condiciones
• Con la antigüedad promedio, con bujías en medianamente aceptables condiciones
• Con la antigüedad promedio, con bujías en malas condiciones

(*) SOURCE: Volvo, Caring for the Environment, Volvo Corporate Communications, Core Values. Sweden 1998. page: Environment Specifications.
Volvo Environmental Report 1995, page 75
Volvo Service Manual, TP 0005061, pages 6 - 12 - 13.

Frost & Sullivan Consulting Research Analyst. London England.
Increased Concerns Spark Questions About the Security of the Spark Plug Market, Octubre 30, 1997
Executive summary, Introduction to the U.S. Automotive Aftermarket. Junio 30 1998.

NGK Spark Plugs USA, Inc. 1999 Master Catalog.
United States Department of Transportation. DOT.
Federal Highway Administration.
Motor Vehicle Registrations 1999. Datos a octubre del 2000.

Final Results

So we have approximate numbers, solid enough, of the impact of each of these emissions in the Environment per year, in the United States, because of spark plugs in bad conditions which is directly due to errors in choosing Spark plugs with an incorrect Heat Range.

X) 92,702,430 automobiles, with spark plugs with the incorrect Heat Range, yearly releases:

3,738,998	tons of CO
1,019,726	tons of HC
710,718	tons of NOx

Y) Instead these automobiles, with the correct Thermal Range, could release yearly:

1'121,699	tons of CO.
305,918	tons of HC.
208,615	tons of NOx.

That means:

The reduction of the emissions that we achieve with our device alone in the United States

is X - Y =

1,121,699 -	3,738,998 =	2,617,229	tons of CO.
305,918 -	1'019,726 =	713,808	tons of HC.
208,615 -	710,718 =	520,103	tons of NOx.