Why It’s Important to Get Your Emissions Checked

In life’s “I’ve Got to do This Again Already?” list, a smog check ranks at the top with dental appointments and attending your sister’s kids’ holiday dance recitals.

It’s always a test of patience. Regardless of how well you plot your visit, so as to arrive at mid-afternoon on a Tuesday in the middle of the month – the alleged slowest time to visit according to most emission testing facility websites – you’re always met by a long line of vehicles. Then, as if on cue, you proceed to choose the slowest lane.

Three hours later, after writing a check, you pull out of the facility’s parking lot, muttering through grimaced teeth, “This had better been worth my time and money.”

It was. The planet thanks you. And your neighbors thank you, too.

Understanding the threat of car emissions is difficult. Unlike trash or polluted water that’s easy to see and thus quantify as “unacceptable,” car exhaust is invisible, making it difficult for the average person to grasp. It’s a classic case of out of site, out of mind. Why worry about something you cannot see?

Why, indeed.

Thankfully, through the scope of science, the dangers of car exhaust have been exposed. Emissions stain the air we breathe with carbon monoxide particles creating major respiratory health risks. Over 18 million adults and 7 million children in the US (8.2% of the total population) now suffer from asthma.

Car emissions also release hydrocarbons and nitrous oxides into the atmosphere, depleting the planet’s protective ozone layer. This, in turn, has spiked a rise in skin cancer and cataracts.

Emissions also contribute to the creation of acid rain, which kills trees and deadens ponds and lakes.

Smog Test for Vehicle Registration

On a less altruistic note, it’s also important to have your emissions checked for car registration purposes, if, of course, you reside in a state or region that requires all or certain vehicles undergo an emissions test.

In state’s that require emissions testing for registration, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) won’t issue a vehicle registration certificate Without a smog check certification.

Did you have to get a smog check before you could register your vehicle?