07 July 2017

Air Pollution while Commuting

An article in the NY Times today highlights a study about exposure to pollution while cycling in cities. In the most polluted cities (Delhi, Beijing), cycling can be hazardous for your health. Of course, in those places breathing can be hazardous to your health ... just not as hazardous as not breathing.

Elsewhere, we should avoid the most air-polluted roads and can rest assured that we are still improving ourselves.

"On weekdays, Darby Jack bicycles the 15 miles from his home in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, to his office at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in Washington Heights. Unlike most people who bike to work, the 42-year-old assistant professor of environmental health wears sensors that monitor how much air he breathes in during the trip along with air pollution levels along his route.
This elaborate gadgetry is part of a five-year study that aims to find out at what point the harm done by pollution to cyclists might outweigh the health benefits accrued from the exercise."

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