Health knowledge made personal
"...which could increase the number of airborne particles penetrating the lungs."Duh. I don't think the results of this study are enough to keep me away (wild horses, yadda yadda) from the road, but it's definitely something to think about long-term. Sigh. Just another thing to worry about I guess. But I don't see any way to prevent us from exposure. The Gothamist suggested surgical masks, but that makes my face itch just thinking about it and I'm 99.9 percent sure they were joking. The best solution seems to be this: Keep buildin' up those bike lanes, Bloomberg! At the very least, they keep us out of the direct line of fire from motorists and their stinky fumes. Especially buses. Ick...buses. |
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Well, here's some breaking news for you. It's not . At least that's what researchers from the UK's London School of Medicine have found after studying a small group of London cyclists. They report that urban pedal-pushers have way higher levels of black carbon in their airway cells than pedestrians.
The brains behind the study supposedly presented their findings yesterday at a respiratory congress in Amsterdam. They found that cyclists forced to suck down icky carbon-laden soot from gas-guzzlers had more than double the amount of black carbon in their lungs when compared to pedestrians. Much like smoking, black carbon can lead to all sorts of fun little health problems, like heart attacks and reduced lung function.
Yikes.
Not that I'm surprised or anything, but I can't help but feel a bit like all those diet soda drinkers were when they found out that fake sweetener stuff can cause cancer. But this is a lot worse, since cycling is my main source of exercise and I'm depending on it to lead me to a long, healthy, deep-breathing future.
Dr. Chinedu (fun to say!) Nwokoro, one of the aforementioned brains who is also an avid cyclist, said a lot of stuff that seems like common sense-based logic to me but apparently took a team of scientists to nail down.