A comparison
Refined sugar and Petrol car
Two figures compared the only honest way: calculated together, so that what they have in common moves them together, and read as how many times larger one is than the other, with a range.
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Side by side, per kilogram
Scenario Economic-embedded, using FIGARO 2023. Each figure is the middle result of 2,000 runs of the calculation, with the range that holds nine in ten of them beside it, and the grade that range earns.
Refined sugar
6.1 × 10⁻⁹ per kilogram(0.24–1.5 × 10⁻⁸)LOWS-MAX · run 2259 · methodology v1.0 · data dv-20261007-44r
One item is one kilogram of refined white sugar.
Petrol car
6.9 × 10⁻⁹ per kilogram(0.40–1.3 × 10⁻⁸)LOWS-MAX · run 2259 · methodology v1.0 · data dv-20261007-44r
One item is one midsize petrol car of 1,385 kg.
Which is larger
The model cannot tell whether Refined sugar carries more harm than Petrol car per kilogram: the range includes both possibilities.
Refined sugar against Petrol car, per kilogram: ×0.89 as much, and very probably (nine times in ten) between ×0.31–×2.4.
In 0% of the runs calculated together, Refined sugar comes out above Petrol car.
Calculated together: the same records of harm, the same split of each industry and the same world production in every run, and each product’s own list of materials. Seeing whether two separate ranges overlap would prove nothing either way.
The reason they differ
Deaths per kilogram of each product, by what carries them, with the largest difference first.
By raw material
| Material | Refined sugar | Petrol car | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 6.1 × 10⁻⁹ | 0 | +6.1 × 10⁻⁹ |
| Copper | 0 | 4.9 × 10⁻⁹ | −4.9 × 10⁻⁹ |
| Iron ore | 0 | 1.3 × 10⁻⁹ | −1.3 × 10⁻⁹ |
| Coal and lignite | 0 | 6.4 × 10⁻¹⁰ | −6.4 × 10⁻¹⁰ |
| Bauxite | 0 | 6.1 × 10⁻¹¹ | −6.1 × 10⁻¹¹ |
| Silica sand | 0 | 5.2 × 10⁻¹² | −5.2 × 10⁻¹² |
By country where the harm was counted
| Country | Refined sugar | Petrol car | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Congo, Dem. Rep. | 5.3 × 10⁻¹¹ | 4.0 × 10⁻⁹ | −4.0 × 10⁻⁹ |
| Ukraine | 2.8 × 10⁻⁹ | 1.7 × 10⁻⁹ | +1.1 × 10⁻⁹ |
| Sudan | 5.5 × 10⁻¹⁰ | 0 | +5.5 × 10⁻¹⁰ |
| Brazil | 3.5 × 10⁻¹⁰ | 1.0 × 10⁻¹⁰ | +2.5 × 10⁻¹⁰ |
| Myanmar | 1.7 × 10⁻¹⁰ | 6.8 × 10⁻¹³ | +1.7 × 10⁻¹⁰ |
| Turkiye | 2.0 × 10⁻¹⁰ | 5.3 × 10⁻¹¹ | +1.5 × 10⁻¹⁰ |
| Haiti | 1.5 × 10⁻¹⁰ | 0 | +1.5 × 10⁻¹⁰ |
| Pakistan | 1.4 × 10⁻¹⁰ | 1.0 × 10⁻¹² | +1.4 × 10⁻¹⁰ |
Middle estimates. The range above belongs to the totals; these rows show where the middle difference comes from.
By the money method
- Refined sugar — 3.4 × 10⁻⁶ per €1,000 spent in its industry(2.2–5.2 × 10⁻⁶)MEDIUMS-MAX · run 2259 · methodology v1.0 · data dv-20261007-44r
- Petrol car — 1.7 × 10⁻⁶ per €1,000 spent in its industry(1.1–2.6 × 10⁻⁶)MEDIUMS-MAX · run 2259 · methodology v1.0 · data dv-20261007-44r
Shown, not ranked. Measured per euro, most industries are too close to tell apart, and two products from the same industry always get the same figure per euro.
What this figure is not
Production phase only. Harm from using the product — driving the car, charging the phone — is not in this figure.
HumanToll 2026, run 2259, methodology v1.0. https://quiescence.eu/humantoll/compare/refined-sugar/petrol-car/