New research has found that bicycle commuters inhale more than twice the amount of black carbon particles as pedestrians making a comparable trip. That healthy bike ride to and from work might be getting you out of a car, but it’s not getting you out of the way of the automobile emissions.
The study, led by Professor Jonathan Grigg from Barts and the London School of Medicine, looked at bicycle and pedestrian commuters in London to determine whether different modes of travel exposed commuters to higher levels of black carbon. By comparing levels of carbon in the lungs of five healthy bicycle commuters to the levels of five healthy pedestrian commuters, the researchers found a large disparity. The bicycle commuters had 2.3 times more black carbon in their lungs. They claim that the probability of this happening by chance is less than one percent.
Buns of Steel and Lungs of Coal
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Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
So, walking is better for you as well as being more eco-friendly.
All the more reason to put in bike routes separate from most car traffic (think Ankeny v. SW Broadway).
And, why does @frankieb hate bikes so much? Can we get you a bike with training wheels? Would that help?
Similar results came out in this Dutch study (http://bit.ly/pjokec). I was shocked to learn that, for bicyclists, breathing polluted air was actually a much bigger health risk than traffic crashes.
Their conclusion, though, was this: “On average, the estimated health benefits of cycling were substantially larger than the risks relative to car driving for individuals shifting their mode of transport.”
Basically, the benefits of active transportation far outweigh the risks.
Funny how it slipped my mind but bike messengers in London of the early 90s always used to wear masks. No, not the wimpy surgical masks Asians wear. More a respirator, like this http://www.eastwood.com/sas-bandit-respira…
Carbon black, maybe it is time to change the colour and improve the life of bike brakes and tyres.