{"id":960,"date":"2011-06-20T07:48:42","date_gmt":"2011-06-19T21:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=960"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:55:10","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:55:10","slug":"breathing-easy-in-the-cabin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/home\/breathing-easy-in-the-cabin\/","title":{"rendered":"Breathing Easy In The Cabin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many new cars rolling off the lines and into the showrooms have been fitted with particulate filters to stop cars emitting quite as many nasties that people can breathe in.\u00a0 You also frequently find pollen filters on the ventilation\/air con systems, meaning that if you drive and suffer from hay fever, you are less likely to have your eyes streaming, forcing you to pull over, if you are stuck behind a trailer loaded with pollen-stuffed garden rubbish<\/p>\n

It seems to be one thing that people are thinking about more these days: the air quality and what we\u2019re breathing in.\u00a0 And there\u2019s no getting away from it: cars and other motorised vehicles are the number 1 producers of carbon monoxide, NOx gases, ozone (fine in the upper atmosphere to keep out the UV but not so good down at ground level) and all the rest of it.\u00a0 But have you ever stopped to wonder how much of this stuff you\u2019re breathing in when you\u2019re in your car?\u00a0 After all, when you\u2019re in a car, you\u2019re usually sitting in a queue of traffic, and every single motor vehicle in that traffic (apart from the electric cars) is putting out a lot of air pollution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it seems to be the conclusion of many studies from around the world that riding in a car (either as passenger or driver) is the second-worst way of getting around when it comes to personal exposure to pollution levels (motorbikes cop it the worst).\u00a0 In case you\u2019re curious, the modes of travel that scored the best were subway (underground railroad), walking, and biking on a cycle track out of the main stream of the traffic (above-ground trains, buses and biking on the road were in the middle).\u00a0 However, many of these studies found that how you set your car\u2019s air conditioning, windows and the like has an effect on how much yuck you breathe in.<\/p>\n

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So what do you do if you don\u2019t really want to give up your car?\u00a0 Apparently, the best way to minimise pollution inside the cabin of your car is to have the air conditioning on (or the climate control) and to have the windows up.\u00a0 The second best option is to have the windows open.\u00a0 The worst option is to have the windows closed and the air vents open.\u00a0 As far as I can tell, the research on air pollution inside car cabins didn\u2019t look at convertible vehicles or vehicles with sunroofs \u2013 they tend to stick with \u201ctypical\u201d cars and use things like Toyota Corolla sedans.\u00a0 Common sense would suggest that opening the hood of a convertible would improve conditions and make riding in a car more like riding a bike on-road, at least pollution-wise (now, there\u2019s a good reason, if you needed one, for buying a convertible!), and that opening the sunroof as well as the windows, assuming that it\u2019s not raining, would do you good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Apart from using the air conditioning and opening the windows, what\u2019s a driver to do?<\/p>\n