Breathing Exhaust Emissions

*Some* cars have pollen filters, but AIUI no car has a means of removing the by-products of exhaust fumes.

Chris

Try an Army Surplus Store or Anne Summers and get a gas mask to cycle to work with.

Try it thirty years ago.

And some cars reduce pollution. About twenty years ago Saab introduced a radiator that cleaner the air as it drove through it...

Sounds about right.

Filters are for particulates (pollen, leaves, cats, children) and are not air scrubbers. You'll get more fresh air than in a car.

I've already got a filter mask, it's barely noticable to passers by thankfully. I was in Japan recently and tried the famous 'hankie' trick over the mouth whilst cycling. Back in the UK it was actually blacker on the route I use, so that's when I bit the bullet and bought a mask.

Why? They're cocooned in a 8ftx4ft cabin with little air movement whereas you're in an open area millions of cubic miles in capacity and with a constant air flow.

Yeah, fair point, but if you think about every particle coming out of the exhaust spreading into the area localised around the exit point, which is a constant line following the path of the vehicle, then surely I must be inhaling a fair whack of every single car zooming past me...

Not really because it is trapped in the slipstream of the vehicle mostly. It can't "spread out" because of the differences in windspeed between the rear of the car and air flowing over the sides/top.

So to really cop for it, you'd have to be pretty much directly behind.

BUT....

You're more likely to be breathing in dust blown up off the ground when it's dry than particulates from a vehicle.

I'd only be worried in areas like city centres where there's little air movement because of the density and heights of buildings.

!!Conor makes two good points without calling anyone a wanker shocker!!

;)

Si

Somebody else is usong his account ;-)

It is nonsense.

However, as a city cylist you apparently do breath as much carbon monoxide as a 40 a day smoker. Great :D