STUCK IN TRAFFIC JAMS? IT MAY UP CHANCE OF CANCER
Culture-Magazine | STUCK IN TRAFFIC JAMS | Culture-Magazine.com
Apart from wasting your time, long traffic jams could cause exposure to toxic fumes, and probably increase various health risks, including cancer, say, researchers, one among them of Indian origin.
Exposure to outdoor air pollution is one of the top 10 health risks confronted via people and is specifically mentioned in urban concentrations, in line with the World Health Organization (WHO). In October 2013, WHO classified outdoor air pollution as being carcinogenic to people.
The findings confirmed that after vehicles stop at red lights, they go through different driving cycles like idling, acceleration and deceleration and emission of toxic fumes. These emissions take more time to disperse, exclusively in built-up areas and end up accumulating in the air at traffic signals. As a result, the humans sitting in cars, with closed windows however with fans switched on, may also be at an increased risk of exposure to the outside pollutants, the researchers mentioned.
Switching on the fan sucks the dirty air from outside to inside the car, leading to an accumulation of pollutants in the car. However, it can be relatively safe to put fans onto the settings where they re-circulate air inside the car without drawing polluted air in from outside, the study mentioned.
“Where feasible and with climate conditions allowing, it is one of the best ways to limit your exposure via keeping windows shut, fans turned off and to try and increase the distance between you and the car in front while in traffic jams or stationary at traffic lights,” told Prashant Kumar from the University of Surrey. “If the fan or heater musts to be on, the best settings could be to have the air re-circulating inside the car without drawing in air from outdoors,” Prashant brought.
Earlier reports have exposed that drivers stuck at traffic lights were exposed up to 29 times more unsafe pollution particles than those driving in free flowing traffic.
The new study, published in the journal Environmental Science: Processes and Effects, has found that pedestrians are additionally exposed to increased air pollution around traffic signals.
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