It is unsurprising but disappointing that the initial reaction to Volkswagen’s deceit (Volkswagen scandal: US chief says carmaker ‘totally screwed up’, 22 September) focuses on falling share prices. The impact of this scandal, however, runs far deeper. Research has shown that many car brands tested in factory settings do not perform as expected by European emission standards on the road. With tens of thousands of deaths hastened by exposure to pollution every year, the real lesson to learn is that we absolutely cannot continue to rely on manufacturers for accurate information about vehicles’ emissions. We need independent, real-world testing. This will not only prevent manufacturers from self-certifying results but, by providing accurate data with which to inform both consumer choice and government pollution-reduction strategies, will go a long way in protecting the health and lives of thousands.

Signed by members of the Healthy Air Campaign:

Dr Penny Woods Chief executive, British Lung Foundation

Kay Boycott Chief executive, Asthma UK

Simon Gillespie Chief executive, British Heart Foundation

Stephen Joseph Chief executive, Campaign for Better Transport

Graham Jukes Chief executive, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health

Dan Byles President, Clean Air Alliance UK

Simon Birkett Director, Clean Air in London

James Thornton Chief executive, ClientEarth

John Murlis President, Environmental Protection UK

Craig Bennett Chief executive, Friends of the Earth

Samantha Heath Chief executive, London Sustainability Exchange

Malcolm Shepherd Chief executive, Sustrans

Jane Landon Deputy chief executive, UK Health Forum

• Some of us have been warning for years that there is a worrying gap between the European test results and what actually happens when vehicles are driven in real-life conditions (VW scandal caused nearly 1m tonnes of extra pollution, analysis shows, 22 September). The key problem is not that the vehicle manufacturers cheat, nor that the authorities use the wrong sort of test cycle, it is our overreliance on technical fixes to solve pollution problems. The complacency of successive governments over the last 20 years about this massive public health scandal is partly due to their assumption that the health impacts would lessen as the technology rapidly improved. It was a major miscalculation. While I have been very supportive of the switch to cleaner vehicles and policy measures that encourage that, if we really want to reduce pollution we have to reduce traffic. The cleanest vehicles are your legs, whether you walk or cycle. If you do have a longer journey or an infirmity, then there are buses or trains. Electric vehicles definitely have a future, but we need to start designing towns and cities so that drivers are the exception, not the norm.

Jenny Jones AM

Green party group, London assembly

• Your analysis of the rise of the diesel car in the UK (How fuel change won support despite deadly rise in pollution, 23 September) explains it as a combination of fraud by the motor industry and government stupidity, but fails to mention anywhere the blindingly obvious reason why motorists switched from petrol models: because of the staggeringly superior fuel economy. The diesel version typically consumes about 25% less fuel, and as petrol prices rocketed to over £1.40/litre in 2012, and household incomes shrank, a motorist driving 10,000 miles annually in a compact car could save about £500 a year in fuel costs. As manufacturers ironed out the earlier notorious drawbacks of diesel engines, such as pre-ignition warm-up, noise and smelly exhaust, the switch became a financial no-brainer, especially for anyone in a rural area reliant on a car and doing above average mileage. It seems unlikely the “sweeteners” offered by government had any effect, other than enabling governments to boast of “green” credentials, while the number of “Chelsea tractors” on the roads does not seem to have dropped at all. The irony of the VW scandal is that we have almost certainly passed “peak diesel” anyway, as the fall in pump prices makes petrol models more attractive.

Tom Brown

London

• The venal conduct of global behemoths entrusted with financial, environmental, and human security (Editorial, 23 September) surely challenges the presumption that neoliberal capitalism is the best way to organise the international economy. Jeremy Corbyn is criticised in much of the media for questioning a system that engorges a tiny minority of wealthy executives while buying the acquiescence of millions through a pampered existence of material excess. It condemns half the world’s population to misery, conflict, war and exploitation. It also sponsors the catastrophe of global warming that will render vast swaths of the planet uninhabitable and cause migratory flows unimaginable even compared with those of recent months.

We need a fundamental reassessment of how we live. The first aim must be to take power back from corporations and institute global governance that defends the planet and the interests of all citizens, not just a wealthy elite.

Simon Sweeney

York Management School, University of York

• The scandal of air pollution highlighted in George Monbiot’s article (Would Volkswagen have got away with it in the UK?, Opinion, 23 September) has even more relevance to Lancashire, threatened with hundreds of fracking wells. Eric Ollerenshaw, then MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood, passed a long list of written questions to Cuadrilla. They replied that an average day’s drilling uses about 1,000 gallons of diesel. The fracture treatments used about 5,000 gallons all together. This presumably does not include the diesel consumed by haulage vehicles bringing chemicals and sand to the sites. Fracking cleaner than coal? I think not.

Anne Fielding

Lytham St Annes, Lancashire

• Another shocking emissions-related fact is that, currently, trucks do not have any CO 2 testing and standards even though they are responsible for 22% of road emissions while making up around 6% of vehicles on UK roads. HGV CO 2 standards could reduce their emissions by about 35% and thereby reduce operators’ fuel bills accordingly. In the UK, only the transport sector’s CO 2 emissions increased, with its total share of CO 2 emissions going up from 25% to 28%. That is why the government needs to get behind the EU plan to introduce transparent CO 2 truck standards, which would ensure that Europe’s truck manufacturers do not get overtaken by their US and Japanese competitors.

Philippa Edmunds

Freight on rail manager, Campaign for Better Transport

• Nothing less than criminal proceedings will do. Those involved caused emissions that must have resulted in ill-health and death. Fines and resignations – the usual white-collar escape route – will just not suffice.

Ron Kipps

Dartford, Kent

• There is clearly a need for a new word to describe the actions of a company that is highly profitable, illegal and of which the senior executives have no knowledge. May I suggest a “Bekahbrooks”?

John Baruch

Bradford