Have you ever worn a pollution mask when commuting?

There’s some interesting

There’s some interesting research on this:

Tainio, Marko et al (2016) Can air pollution negate the health benefits of cycling and walking? Preventive Medicine 87, 233–236

Basically the authors conclude that the benefits of exercise outweight the disbenefits of air pollution by an enormous margin. Even on the most polluted day ever recorded in London you would have to cycle for 9 hours and 50 minutes on the most polluted day ever before the harm outweighed the benefit. Maximum benefits are at 2 hours, then harms start to climb but don’t cancel out the benefits for a long time.

This research was covered in the FT here:

https://ig.ft.com/sites/urban-cycling/ (may require free registration)

Here’s the key diagrams:

Seems to me, the best

Seems to me, the best solution is to replace all polluting vehicles with electric vehicles.

Been wondering about this

Been wondering about this myself but I just cannot imagine how this is ever going to work for such a high aerobic activity as cycling.

I live and ride in Manila, which has worse air quality than what you Brits get. One of my hobbies is painting scale models with spray lacquer paints, and I use a respirator with appropriate filter cartridges for that. Breathing through that is cumbersome enough to begin with while standing around a paint booth, what more while riding at speed and/or at oxygen debt.

I am, but you shut the form..

I am, but you shut the form…

janusz0 wrote:

janusz0 wrote:

20 years ago, I used to commute from Brick Lane to Soho, via the City of London, in a Respro. Leakage, the effort of breathing through filters and overheating made passive masks unpleasant for cycling. What could work is a deep, close fitting, face mask with a remote, pumped filter unit. This would provide a curtain of clean air to breathe from. There are industrial respirators that work on this principle. The pump would be powered by battery, dynamo or directly from the drivetrain and I’d hope that the air could also provide cooling inside the helmet.

Passive masks make far more sense for people walking or driving than cycling. It seems the same with helmets – you’re far more likely to get a head injury whilst driving or walking than cycling (and the helmet would be more effective) yet they’re only marketed at cyclists.

filter masks don’t work at

filter masks don’t work at all if they’re not fitted crrectly. Even a small gap between skin and mask, anywhere around them, destroys the protection. In industrial situations employers have a legal duty to ensure those using masks are trained and tested for fitting- it’s not a particularly pleasent test, involving a large hood and a spray of bitrex.

One thing that’s an immediate fail on the testing, no need to to proceed, is if you’ve got any facial hair- they absolutely only work if you’re clean shaven.

Ones with a single strap, or a strap that only hooks around the ears, etc, are pretty much pointless, they won’t stay in place properly.

Duncann wrote:

alansmurphy wrote:

 Is a 16 stone bloke buying a carbon bike marketing bs or individual choice?

The answer is c. – both of the above 🙂

Yeah 😛

It’s when said bloke starts bragging about how lightweight and aero his new wheels are that things need context!

Hmmm, not everything is

Hmmm, not everything is marketing BS and it really depends on the way you conduct the study (compared to say Team Sky in a wind tunnel).

You could argur that theres little size differential between the mechanisms but a rotor may be an issue in cross winds, the rim brake is in front of the head tube (which the air would hit anyway), the different wheels the discs allow may more than account for resistance and on and on and on. Joe Public may not need or feel these differences particularly, that’s not to say there aren’t differences. Is a 16 stone bloke buying a carbon bike marketing bs or individual choice?