[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

There is no need to take it personally. In the end, nearly everybody on this board shares a similar goal to reach a good balance of fuel-efficiency (or simply energy-efficiency if we consider the ones who resort to EVs ) and an eventual decrease on overall emissions.

You know, it is all one big misconception. Emissions research tests all vehicles, not just diesel.
Emissions regulations have let off some aspects of diesel in the past. As diesel engines run lean on light loads by concept, they produce less CO and more NOx than gasoline engines.
Yet emission standards are pushing the levels down:
Fact Check: are diesel cars really more polluting than petrol cars?

The problem here is that many diesel cars cannot actually meet the standards, that's why dieselgate is so widespread. Gasoline cars generally do meet the emissions standards (but not the economics...).
Also the standards do not yet distinguish between micro particulates and larger particulates. Direct injection cars (diesel AND gasoline) produce more micro particulates than carbureted or indirect injection cars; in that aspect the old diesels were less dangerous than the modern 'clean' ones.

But it does contain less benzene: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-benzene...-not-in-diesel

This is a nice neutral description of diesel and its use: https://www.globalsecurity.org/milit...iesel-fuel.htm

and what it does to us:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4894930/

Diesel engine emissions are among the most prevalent anthropogenic pollutants worldwide, and with the growing popularity of diesel-fueled engines in the private transportation sector, they are becoming increasingly widespread in densely populated urban regions. However, a large number of toxicological studies clearly show that diesel engine emissions profoundly affect human health. ... The key aspects of adverse effects induced by diesel exhaust exposure described herein will be important for regulators to support or ban certain technologies or to legitimate incentives for the development of promising new technologies such as catalytic diesel particle filters.