Automaker Volkswagen has suspended a top executive in response to widespread public criticism over experiments in which monkeys were exposed to diesel exhaust.

The company said in a statement last week that Thomas Steg, head of government relations and sustainability, was stepping away from his duties at his own request.

Steg had said in an interview published in the newspaper Bild that he had known about the experiment but did not inform the company’s then-CEO, Martin Winterkorn. Steg said he rejected an initial proposal to use human volunteers and said that even after animals were substituted for humans the experiment “should not have taken place.”

The move follows a report in The New York Times that the now-disbanded EUGT commissioned the 2014 monkey test at the Lovelace Respiratory Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to measure how Volkswagen’s diesel technology was succeeding in controling harmful emissions.

Diluted exhaust gases from a late-model Volkswagen vehicle were fed into chambers where the monkeys were exposed for four hours. Afterward, lung fluid samples were taken from the sedated monkeys, which were not killed in the experiment. The study did not deliver a definitive result.

The test was done with a vehicle that used illegal software to cheat on emissions tests, turning controls off when the vehicle was not being tested. That practice was exposed in 2015, leading to Winterkorn’s resignation.

The Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute said in a statement that the tests were designed by EUGT and the lab itself was initially not aware the vehicle had been rigged. It said it complied with regulations for the treatment of lab animals and was committed to their humane and ethical treatment.

Volkswagen’s current CEO, Matthias Mueller, said in the VW statement, “We are investigating in detail the work of EUGT, which was dissolved in 2017, and drawing the necessary conclusions.”

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【代替】dàitì substitute put (a person or thing) in the place of another

【操纵】cāozòng rig manipulate fraudulently

汽车制造商大众利用猴子进行柴油尾气测试引发公众广泛批评，该公司为此将一名高管停职。

大众上周发表声明称，该公司政府关系与可持续发展负责人托马斯•施特格主动要求离职。

施特格在接受德国《图片报》采访时曾表示，他已经知晓此事，但并未通知大众时任首席执行官马丁•温特科恩。施特格称，他拒绝了以人类志愿者为试验对象的最初方案，并承认即使后来用动物代替人类进行试验“也是不可取的”。

此前，《纽约时报》的一篇报道披露，现已解散的欧洲交通行业环境与健康研究集团（EUGT）曾委托位于新墨西哥州阿尔伯克基的洛夫莱斯呼吸研究所在2014年进行猴子试验，以测试大众柴油车技术是否成功控制有害气体的排放。

研究人员向房间里释放了一台大众新型汽车经稀释后的尾气，并让猴子在房间里呆上4小时。随后，从注射了镇静剂的猴子身上提取肺液样本，这些猴子并没有在试验中死去。该研究没有得出明确的结果。

这次试验中使用的车辆安装了能够在尾气排放检测中作弊的软件，当车辆未被测试时，软件会关闭控制装置。这一做法在2015年遭曝光，导致温特科恩辞职。

洛夫莱斯呼吸研究所声称，试验是由EUGT设计的，他们最初并没有意识到车辆被做了手脚。他们遵守了关于实验动物的处理规定，并致力于让它们受到人道的对待。

大众现任首席执行官马提亚斯·米勒在上周的声明中表示，“我们正在调查EUGT的工作，给出必要说法。该机构已经在2017年解散。”

(Chinadaily.com.cn)