Utah Physicians Sue 4 Wheel Parts
Utah Physicians Sue 4 Wheel Parts for Selling Pollution Control Defeat Devices
4 Wheel Parts charged with selling and installing defeat parts that increase harmful air pollution along Utah’s Wasatch Front
(September 5, 2019 – Salt Lake City) – Today Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE) filed a Clean Air Act complaint in Utah Federal District Court against TAP Worldwide, Inc., doing business as 4 Wheel Parts, to stop and penalize the company’s sale and installation of exhaust kits, “race” catalytic converters and electronic reprogrammers that remove or defeat pollution control systems in motor vehicles.
4 Wheel Parts sells parts to Utah consumers through its website and its “Performance Centers” in Salt Lake City and Ogden. TAP Worldwide, that does business as 4 Wheel Parts, is owned by Polaris Industries, Inc.
“As physicians we see among our patients the broad range of health consequences from air pollution–sudden death, heart attacks, strokes, lung disease, cancer, and birth defects,” explained Dr. Brian Moench, UPHE President. “Vehicle pollution, especially diesel exhaust, is one of the most toxic types of pollution there is. This company’s marketing, selling, and installation of parts that increase air pollution throughout the country, is illegal, and a serious health hazard to millions of people,” said Dr. Moench.
UPHE’s complaint states that removing a catalytic converter, which is enabled by exhaust kits sold by 4 Wheel Parts, can cause a twenty-fold increase in health-damaging emissions of nitrogen oxide from each vehicle, in violation of federal and state law.
“4 Wheel Parts admits its race catalytic converters have not been approved by either EPA or the California Air Resources Board and are illegal to sell in California. So why are they for sale here in Utah?” asks UPHE Board Member Dr. Kirtly Jones. “Pollution literally kills or injures hundreds of thousands of people every year. Pollution controls on vehicles may have been the most important advance in public health protection in our country’s history. We cannot allow any company to profit by selling these parts and contributing to that public health plague.”
[One of the “race” catalytic converters sold by 4 Wheel Parts is shown below. From: https://www.4wheelparts.com/b/performance-parts/catalytic-converters/_/N-cm2yhZ1z0rrif]
4 Wheel Parts also agrees that a number of reprogrammers that its sells, like the Diablosport Trinity 2 EX, are “illegal to install . . . on a registered vehicle and use it . . . on the street.”
“Unfortunately, Volkswagen is not alone when it comes to defeating pollution control equipment in motor vehicles. We are bringing this case to stem the flow of high polluting, illegal software and parts that are being sold by an American company right here in Utah,” explained UPHE Executive Director, Jonny Vasic.