Rush Hours Also Harm Your Health - How?

Did you know that when vehicle traffic peaks, drivers and passengers experience striking consequences from greater and longer exposure to harmful gases released by vehicles?

Studies measured roads at specified intervals over 24 hours. Although the data from this lengthy experiment could not identify fine, detailed differences, they highlighted that passengers traveling inside vehicles were exposed to more toxic gases than people beside the road!

To determine exactly what drivers face in traffic, researchers used special measuring devices inside vehicles during morning traffic in central Atlanta, United States. These detected twice as much toxic gas and foreign matter as roadside instruments. The foreign matter was classified as harmful chemicals causing oxidative stress in cells (these substances also predispose to respiratory and heart diseases, cancer and degeneration of nervous tissue).

The results were published on 27 June 2017 in; Atmospheric Enviroment as the journal. The study determined that people traveling by vehicle were in an environment affecting their health 2 times worse than normal.

In another experiment, researchers designed an artificial lung as a measuring device that inhaled the same amount of air as a normal person. They placed these artificial lungs in passenger seats in 30 vehicles and sent them into heavy traffic on 60 journeys. Some drivers took busy streets, others bypass roads. In-vehicle measuring devices detected more harmful air than roadside devices every time.

When the reactive oxygen particles found in this study are inhaled, the body begins producing chemicals to fight them. Together, these may cause the body to overreact, altering and damaging healthy DNA structures.

Research, studies and debate continue to identify which pollutants cause which illnesses. Traffic apparently produces much more polluted air than vehicle pollen filters can clean, making driving during rush hours in particular more unhealthy than thought. However, solutions to reduce exhaust emissions are being sought worldwide. For example, many European countries have announced that from the 2030s onward they will allow only electric car sales.