Is it recommended to wear a face mask when riding bicycle around cars?
Hello.
Twice a day I ride bicycle for 2km along a busy city road (2x2 lanes at 50km/h).
From a health standpoint, is it recommended to wear a face mask (N95)? Does it stop exhaust fumes?
Thank you.
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Great question. There's at least one study that claims they do help:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7780759/
A lot of folks who operate leaf blowers and such would also benefit from wearing a respirator. I see landscapers forgetting to do this all the time. They have the eye and ear protection, but no lung protection.
Seriously, those things are the worst.
I hate the two-stroke models. Electric aren't so bad.
Yeah, I was talking about the former. Electric ones are totally fine.
But the fromer ones are really super bad. They put out carbon monixide and all kind of dust and shit ... micro plastics whatever, fuck you. Point is they are so much worse than you'd think.
The exhause from those is worse than a diiesel VW with the cheating software disabled.
Agree 100%. They should be banned...some places have already banned them and it's a spreading idea.
If there is one good thing about covid, it's that I have spare mask lying aroung. I now use a mask whenever I vacuum. There is so much dust you blow in the air. I have two cats. There is cat hair everywhere, the mask can't hurt.
Ugh, inhaling cat hairs :D
I got a dewalt one for pretty cheap since i already had the batteries for it, and i don't see anything wrong with it. Plenty of power and not a lot of noise.
The landscape company that maintains the condo I live in uses them exclusively to "clean" the paved common areas and every time they do, the dust blows up into the air, and then 15 minutes after they pass it resettles right back where it came from, while also leaving a fine film of dust on every flat surface in the apartment, as well as small piles of long-accumulated gunk in every corner and crevice. I can't help but think how much better and quieter this place would be if they just used brooms.
Cool, the study was done at the University of North Sumatra. I'm adding it to my archive. Thanks!!
From the Abstract/ Conclusion: "All three type of masks such as surgical mask, N95 mask, and carbon mask was effective to reduce CO levels from air pollution with the most significant was N95 and carbon mask. Fabric mask has the poorest protection from CO levels."
I'm surprised at the N95 being effective. And expect the best results would come from a fresh, well fitted, carbon filter. As for myself, I do my best to ride where the motor vehicles are not present. Our town, like many, has a decent bike/ walking trail system.
I don't know, but I guess that depends on the specific person, I biked for 10 years through the city, 7km one way, 7km back in the evening, summer, winter, never had respiratory problems, still got none about 7 years later, my problems started when I stopped. I actually gained substantially weight :) true story. Weight's gone, but what a fight it was.
Yeah. It's around 1.25 miles (2km). Unless it's rush hour Mumbai or downtown Beijing I wouldn't be too worried.
If I was that worried I'd probably want air filters/respiration if I was running, walking or in a vehicle. But that's just me.