Mess Media, March 13, 2009
By Joe Hendry
Ten years ago Toronto bike messengers warned of the dangers of smog to
our health in “Choking us to death: The
Air Pollution Crisis and Its Effects on Bicycle Couriers.”
Couriers pointed to a unique vulnerability due to exposure to both the
ground-level ozone and particulate matter present in smog and to
exposure to
peek levels of pollution together with long-term exposure to non peak
levels.
| “Bicycle
couriers work all day, year round in the midst of smog. Our
lungs have minimal opportunity to recover from the effects of polluted
air. We are chronically exposed to high doses of dangerously polluted
air for long term, extended periods of time.” |
The athletic nature of the profession requires messengers to “spend
more time outdoors, breathe faster and engage in vigorous physical
activity.”
This danger to couriers is exacerbated by the location of the athletic
activity which means that a bike courier’s “lungs are not more than
about 10 feet from an exhaust pipe for most of the day.”
Since the release of “Choking us to death,” many studies have confirmed
couriers’ concerns.
In 2007, the New York Times pointed to studies that showed particulates
posed a strong health hazard to athletes. The key medical piece of
advice from the article:
| "Still,
virtually every expert interviewed said that Americans should
not stop exercising outdoors. Rather they suggested that exercisers
should keep their distance from exhaust-spewing cars and check
air-quality forecasts before venturing out." |
In other words don’t exercise on bad air days or near traffic.
The Times highlighted the long-term impacts:
| “And
there are long-term consequences. A study that used the mass of
data included in the Women’s Health Initiative found that women who
lived in communities with relatively high levels of air pollution in
the forms of tiny particles — a k a soot — were far more likely to die
because of heart attacks than women who lived in cleaner air. Results
were published in February in The New England Journal of Medicine.” |
It’s not just the heart that’s at risk from smog components. While
particulates damage the heart, it’s ozone damages the lungs. A new
study published in The New England Journal of Medicine
directly attributes a significant increase in respiratory deaths to
long-term exposure to ground-level ozone..
The study found that every increase of 10 parts per billion (ppb) in
average ozone concentrations was associated with about a 4% increase in
dying from respiratory causes. In cities such as New York and
Washington, it means a 25% increased risk of respiratory death and up
to 50% increased risk in heavily polluted cities such as Los Angeles.
Bike messengers all over the world are familiar with the increased risk
of death. When it comes to pollution couriers often refers to
themselves as the canaries in the coal mine. In Toronto, on June 16,
2005, after 18 years on the road, 58-year-old veteran messenger Robert
"Biker Bob" Byers, collapsed and died of what was reported to be a
massive heart attack. He had just delivered his last package of the day.
Byers suffered from a number of long-standing ailments, most of which
fit the classic profile of diseases caused by prolonged exposure to
smog.
The fact that he'd worked through a 12-day-long smog alert likely puts
his death among the 5,800 premature smog-exacerbated casualties that
the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) forecasted for the province that
year.
For ten years governments have failed to act on courier concerns about
smog but now that science has finally proven these concerns, messengers
are hoping that it’s not too late.
For more information read "Choking us to
death:the air pollution crisis and its effects on bicycle couriers
(1999)"
Long-Term
Ozone Exposure and Mortality – New England Journal
of Medicine , March 12, 2009
Study
links smog exposure to premature death – New York
Times, March 12, 2009
Ozone
causes 20% of lung deaths, study suggests - Toronto Star,
March 11, 2009
For
Athletes, an Invisible Traffic Hazard
- New York Times, July 12, 2007
This
job could kill - NOW Magazine, July 21, 2005
|