Iridium found in Volkswagen exhaust: Maggi Lab

Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) lab alias Maggi labs which had tested the Maggi samples that were found to contain an unacceptable level of lead, has now said that it has found traces of 
Iridium in the exhaust of Volkswagen cars it tested. The tests were done by the lab out of curiosity and because the lab had run out of noodle brands to test. The test results will be placed in public domain this weekend after the government studies it, said L D Kumar, Head of Virtual and Invasive Testing at FSDA.

"This is indeed a rare instance of an element common among extra-terrestrial bodies being found in automobile exhaust. We have no idea as to how a rare element found its way into the automobile. It could have come from the fuel or the polymer lining the fuel tank. I am not going to speculate at this point especially since you are only a blog and not a newspaper, I will indulge in more speculation tonight on Newshour with Goswami," L D Kumar said.

As soon as the news was out, UP government banned the sale of Volkswagen cars while seven other states placed it on the "watch list". 3 other states meanwhile said that they will ban the sale of these cars in case there is nothing to ban over the weekend.

Maharashtra meanwhile banned the sale of  Volkswagen cars for a period of 7 days giving religious sentiment as a reason for doing so.  Maharashtra also wrote a letter to Rajdeep Sardesai explaining the reasons behind the ban to prevent the journo from going to town questioning the ban. "All pseudo-secular and closet socialist corners of the state have been informed about the ban in advance," a CMO spokesperson said.

When asked if they have done some research on Iridium, the spokesperson got angry and said "it is suffice to say that the element in question has been detected. The previous government had not done its work properly so the element went undetected and now that we have found it, we will impose a ban. Whether the element is bad or good, we will figure that out after a media backlash. For now let's enjoy this wanton display of government muscle," the spokesperson said.

Background
Since 2009, Volkswagen had been installing elaborate software in 482,000 "clean diesel" vehicles sold in the US, so that the cars' pollution controls only worked when being tested for emissions. The rest of the time, the vehicles could freely spew hazardous, smog-forming compounds. When the regulators caught hold of this fact, they were less than pleased. VW is now facing fines of up to $18 bn.