Is Your Commute Killing You?

Posted by: Curt | Under: General Fitness, Health | (0) Comments

If you live in one of the major metro areas, it very well could be… Forbes has an article describing the problem- and it isn’t just the normal pollution that’s killing you, it is stress, accidents and particulate pollution from big trucks. Once again, lifestyle choices play into the equation-

What’s really taking a toll on your health is the polluted air you’re breathing, lengthy traffic delays and dodging accidents to and from work. Even as the stress mounts, we put up with it, since most of us can’t afford to or don’t want to live near our offices.

“It’s a lifestyle choice,” says David Rizzo, author of Survive the Drive! How to Beat Freeway Traffic in Southern California. “We put our health second. To have a big house, we’re willing to put up with smog and a big drive. We sacrifice our longevity for short-term gains.”

“Particle pollution kills people, whether they’re breathing it in over a short period or day in and day out for a year,” Nolen says. “It’s not like being hit by a car, but it shortens the lives of people by months to years.”

Even if you live in a city with low pollution levels, don’t kid yourself; that doesn’t necessarily mean your commute is healthy. A 2007 report by the Clean Air Task Force that investigated diesel exhaust levels during commutes in New York, Boston, Austin, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio, documented diesel particle levels four to eight times higher inside commuter cars, buses and trains than in those cities’ ambient outdoor air.

I live in the Atlanta area (rated the #2 worst city), and I can tell you that the pollution here is very bad, especially during the summer months. Fortunately, I work from home so I don’t have to commute each day, but I still have to do a lot of driving. It seems that in Atlanta, every third vehicle is a big truck since Atlanta is a major distribution point for the southeast. Sometimes the diesel smoke is almost choking on the interstates and I don’t see things getting better any time soon. Probably the only real solution is electric vehicles and they are still a decade away.