Nearly 8.8 million people die prematurely each year due to air pollution.
I worked on diesel vehicles for years and one day a colleague said he had seen a secret government report saying that diesal fumes were one of the most cancerous substances around. It turned out to be true.
The researchers argue that the ultrafine particles that make up air pollution are absorbed by the bloodstream and travel throughout the body, potentially harming every cell in the body. Additionally, the presence of these particles in different organs could cause dangerous levels of inflammation as the body’s immune system tries to fight what it perceives to be infection.
Global Citizen
Air Pollution Harms Every Part of Your Body, Research Shows
When I ride my bicycle in winter, the exhaust pollution from vehicles can linger along the road. Smoke from slow-burning wood stoves are another irritant. Breathing in this mixture causes nausea, although that symptom may be part of my reaction to the smell. Pollution has become a problem in rural areas over the last 20 years.
ReplyDeleteI was doing 4 hours a day cycling recently, and although it's making me very fit I did wonder about the air pollution. Fortunately, I live in a London suburb on the Greenbelt so there's lots of countryside here and the traffic is often not too bad.
DeleteWear a mask, they actually do help for pollution.
ReplyDeletehttps://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/do-pollution-masks-work/
Heck, even DIY cloth masks can offer a protection factor 2, ie reduce you exposure by half (at least 2 studies have similar results on homemade masks). Surgical masks are surprisingly effective. On fit testing they don't perform as well as n95 masks, but there's at lest 3 flu studies showing no significant difference between real world performs of surgical masks and n95 masks.