FRANKFURT — In 2014, as evidence mounted about the harmful effects of diesel exhaust on human health, scientists in an Albuquerque laboratory conducted an unusual experiment: Ten monkeys squatted in airtight chambers, watching cartoons for entertainment as they inhaled fumes from a diesel Volkswagen Beetle. 
 
 German automakers had financed the experiment in an attempt to prove that diesel vehicles with the latest technology were cleaner than the smoky models of old. But the American scientists conducting the test were unaware of one critical fact: The Beetle provided by Volkswagen had been rigged to produce pollution levels that were far less harmful in the lab than they were on the road. 
 
 The results were being deliberately manipulated. 
 
 The Albuquerque monkey research, which has not been previously reported, is a new dimension in a global emissions scandal that has already forced Volkswagen to plead guilty to federal fraud and conspiracy charges in the United States and to pay more than $26 billion in fines. 
 
 The company admitted to installing software in vehicles that enabled them to cheat on emissions tests. But legal proceedings and government records show that Volkswagen and other European automakers were also engaged in a prolonged, well-financed effort to produce academic research that they hoped would influence political debate and preserve tax privileges for diesel fuel. ||||| Reports by German newspapers Stuttgarter Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung said humans had been exposed to a gas found in diesel fumes during an experiment "sometime between 2012 and 2015" requested by a group funded by German carmakers. 
 
 The tests were requested by the European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (EUGT) — a now defunct organization founded by German carmakers Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW. 
 
 Read more: German university hospital defends auto firms' nitrogen dioxide test ethics 
 
 The experiments focused on "short-term nitrogen dioxide inhalation by healthy people," according to the newspapers. An Aachen-based university hospital then examined 25 people after they inhaled varying amounts of the gas over several hours. 
 
 The experiments were reported on after recent revelations of an experiment where — in equally controversial tests — monkeys were made to inhale the toxic gas. 
 
 Watch video 01:35 Now live 01:35 mins. Share Carmakers used humans for gas test Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink http://p.dw.com/p/2rhmB Carmakers used humans for gas test 
 
 Not to be tolerated 
 
 Reacting to the accusations, Volkswagen said in a statement "we are convinced that the scientific methods chosen at the time were wrong." 
 
 Daimler said Sunday it was "shocked by the extent of those studies and the way there were carried out." 
 
 "We strongly condemn the tests," the company said, adding that it had had no say in the testing method and the measures taken by the EUGT were "against Daimler's values and ethical principles." 
 
 The Stuttgart-based carmaker said it had launched an investigation into the tests on monkeys and humans which it considered "superfluous and repulsive." 
 
 German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said later on Monday she was "horrified" by the news. 
 
 "What is known so far is disgusting," she said, adding that the auto industry and the scientific community must explain their role. "The fact that an entire industry has apparently tried to conceal brazen and dubious methods of scientific research makes it even more monstrous." 
 
 Read more:Opinion: Car industry going from bad to worse? 
 
 Germans and their cars Mobility made in Germany The reputation of Germany's famed carmakers may have taken a hit, but their sales still soar. Yet German brands make up less than two-thirds of all cars on German roads, which is still a male-dominated territory: Only one-third of all owners in 2017 were women. Interestingly, that number has virtually not changed over the past decade. 
 
 Germans and their cars A decade on the road German passenger vehicles, are growing steadily older, from 8.1 years a decade ago to 9.3 years in 2017, the highest-ever age. By the way: By no means is Germany the car capital of the world: It ranks 20th in motor vehicles per capita - 17 spots behind the US, where every 10 people own eight cars. The world's least motorized country? Togo. 
 
 Germans and their cars Land of the vintage automobile Roughly 600,000 vehicles - 13 percent of all cars on German roads - are considered vintage cars which means they are more than three decades old. 380,000 have a historic license plate, which requires the vehicle to be in "contemporary, original preservable condition." 
 
 Germans and their cars Steady motorization As of January 1, 2017, 45.8 million passenger vehicles were registered in Germany. Based on a population of 82.8 million, it translates to 684 cars per 1,000 people. Today, there are five times as many cars in Germany than there were half a century ago when roughly 9 million vehicles drove on the "Autobahn." 
 
 Germans and their cars BMW country is king The average passenger vehicle age in Germany varies from state to state. Maybe not surprisingly, cars in Bavaria, the home of BMW and the state with the highest economic per capita output, are the youngest at nine years, while the average vehicle on Brandenburg's roads, the state surrounding Berlin, is almost a decade old. 
 
 Germans and their cars Germany lags behind While the number of gasoline-powered cars have remained remarkably stable over the past decade, their share steadily decreased to two-thirds of all engines in 2017. The number of diesel cars has risen from 10 to 15 million since 2008. Electric and hybrid cars combined made up 200,000 of all 45 million - that's 0.5 percent. In Norway, the share of electric vehicles alone is more than 1 percent. Author: Benjamin Bathke 
 
 
 
 An occupational hazard 
 
 Aachen University Hospital said in a statement that the aim of the study was to examine whether exposure to NO2 at various concentrations below the previous limit would result in biological effects in healthy volunteers. 
 
 "The study thus served to optimize job security, for example for truck drivers, vehicle mechanics and welders," the statement read. "Extremely sensitive, non-invasive techniques were used to capture the biological response, in line with the best available methodology and based on years of development work." 
 
 Watch video 01:44 Now live 01:44 mins. Share 'Diesel summit' tries to prevent driving bans Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink http://p.dw.com/p/2oQNO German 'diesel summit' tries to prevent driving bans 
 
 hg/jd (dpa, Reuters) ||||| Image copyright EPA Image caption German carmakers have already been hit by a damaging scandal over cheating in emissions tests 
 
 The German government has denounced experiments funded by German carmakers in which humans and monkeys reportedly inhaled diesel exhaust fumes. 
 
 German media say the health impact research was done by EUGT, a body funded by Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW. 
 
 Such tests could not be justified, the government said, demanding details. A minister called them "abominable". 
 
 Daimler also condemned them. VW is embroiled in a scandal over software that gave false diesel exhaust data. 
 
 In 2015 VW admitted having fitted "cheat" devices in the US that made their engines appear less polluting than they actually were. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Car firms are trying to reduce losses from bad publicity about diesel fumes 
 
 EUGT was dissolved by the carmakers last year. The initials stand for European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector. 
 
 "These tests on monkeys or even humans cannot be justified ethically in any way," said Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert. 
 
 Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks called the experiments "abominable" and expressed shock that scientists had agreed to conduct them. 
 
 Social Democrat politician Stephan Weil - a VW supervisory board member - called them "absurd and abhorrent". "Lobbying can be no excuse whatsoever for such testing," he said. 
 
 What do we know about the tests? 
 
 On Thursday the New York Times reported that the EUGT research was designed to counter a 2012 decision by the World Health Organization to classify diesel exhaust as a carcinogen. 
 
 It said that in 2014, EUGT had exposed 10 monkeys to fumes - in an air-tight chamber - from several cars, including a diesel VW Beetle. The testing took place at a lab in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 
 
 Then at the weekend Germany's Stuttgarter Zeitung and SWR radio reported that 19 men and six women had inhaled diesel fumes in another EUGT experiment. 
 
 During a month of tests at a lab in Aachen, west Germany, they were exposed to various concentrations of diesel fumes, which contain toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx). The BBC has not seen the study itself, but German media say it was published in 2016. 
 
 At the time the carmakers were arguing that modern technology had cut pollution from diesel engines to safe levels. But VW was later found to have fitted "cheat" devices that rigged the emissions data. 
 
 The Aachen University Clinic said its "ethically approved" human tests had "no link" to the VW emissions scandal. 
 
 Read more on the diesel emissions scandal: 
 
 What have the carmakers said about this? 
 
 Daimler, manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz cars, said on Sunday "we are appalled by the extent of the [EUGT] studies and their implementation". "We condemn the experiments in the strongest terms." 
 
 Reacting to the NYT report about the monkey experiments, VW tweeted on Saturday that it "explicitly distances itself clearly from all forms of animal abuse". 
 
 "We know that the scientific methods used by EUGT were wrong and apologise sincerely for this." 
 
 VW's supervisory board says it will conduct a full investigation, calling the experiments "utterly incomprehensible". 
 
 What is the latest on diesel pollution? 
 
 A new study by a German car specialist, Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, says levels of pollution from diesel cars are still too high in 10 German cities, so the vehicles are likely to be banned from the pollution hotspots unless engines are upgraded. 
 
 According to his research, vehicle software upgrades would not be enough to address the problem. Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Cologne are among the cities with serious pollution hotspots. 
 
 Were the tests unethical? 
 
 The German government thinks so. VW apologised and Daimler said "the EUGT's approach contradicts our values and ethical principles". 
 
 Two independent scientists who have conducted air pollution tests on human volunteers told the BBC that the company sponsorship in the German case was problematic. 
 
 "If the research is not independent then there would be doubt about its validity and it would therefore not be ethical," said Prof Frank Kelly of King's College London. 
 
 He said hundreds of volunteers had participated in state-funded studies on the impact of diesel exhaust - studies which required prior ethical approval. In one study by the college, volunteers with chronic lung or heart conditions walked down London's busy Oxford Street and through Hyde Park. 
 
 "Experimenting on people or monkeys is not inherently unethical," said Dr Chris Carlsten of Canada's University of British Columbia. 
 
 He said it was "not very common" to do air pollution tests on monkeys, though some had been used in ozone impact studies. 
 
 He has studied the effects of diesel exhaust on volunteers, who are paid about C$14 hourly (£8; $11) for two hours of exposure at a time. The diluted exhaust exposure is similar to the level experienced in Beijing, he said. 
 
 "These studies are essential to back up policies that protect all of us," he said.
– Could carmakers replace cable companies in the battle for the title of Most Reviled Industry? This news out of Germany could certainly help. The BBC reports German carmakers funded research that involved having humans and monkeys inhale diesel exhaust fumes to gauge the health impact. The research was done at the behest of the European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (aka EUGT), which was exclusively funded by Volkswagen, Daimler, and BMW until they did away with the group in 2017. In a lengthy article published Thursday, the New York Times dug into the monkey side of things, reporting on a 2014 experiment in an Albuquerque, NM, lab in which 10 monkeys sat in airtight chambers for four hours as fumes from a diesel Volkswagen Beetle were piped in, all as cartoons played for entertainment. It was supposed to provide ammunition against a 2012 classification by the WHO that diesel exhaust is a carcinogen, but the results were both "deliberately manipulated" and inconclusive. Over the weekend came the news that the tests didn't stop at monkeys. German newspapers reported 25 adults were exposed to fumes over a number of hours as part of a look at "short-term nitrogen dioxide inhalation by healthy people," per Deutsche Welle, which reports the subjects were examined by Germany's Aachen University Hospital. Daimler on Sunday said it is "appalled," per the BBC, and a rep for Angela Merkel said the tests "cannot be justified ethically in any way." The hospital noted in a statement that the study "served to optimize job security, for example for truck drivers, vehicle mechanics, and welders," Deutsche Welle reports.