Biking and breathing

Hi Everyone,

I’ve started settling into my life here in Kaohsiung. For the first time in my life, I’m riding a bicycle on the street and getting daily cardio exercise. My friend gave me this white disposable mask to wear whenever I go outside, but I wonder, does it really protect my lungs from all the vehicle exhaust and dust on the street? Also, I find it’s hard to breathe through when I go fast and it makes my glasses fog up. Is there a better way? Or do you just get used to breathing through the mask after a while?

hi persephone,

those masks will only filter out large particles such as dirt and dust. fumes will go right around or through it. so will viruses.

to keep your glasses from fogging try wearing it a bit lower on your face so your exhaled breath can go out freely without going right up through your glasses. or exhale more through your mouth instead of your nose. inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth.

i admire you for biking to work. i bike or walk to work everyday (5 miles/8km round trip). i often wonder why people drive their cars to the gym and then sit on a bike for half an hour?

i get about an hour of cardio per day commuting without a car. and i find it a good way to prepare for my workday, then unwind from my workday.

keep up the good communting.

jm

I noticed that the local Chinese medicine store in my village sells those colored cloth scooter masks that the locals wear. What was interesting to note was that the masks were made by 3m, and the description of the product was “comfort mask”.

From working in the boatbuilding industry back home and in England, I have seen that 3M personal safety equipment always has a brief description of the purpose for which the product is intended, and being that they have to conform to various government regulations (OSHA in the states) the descriptions are accurate. In other words, from a health and safety standpoint, scooter masks don’t do squat. They might keep sand, leaves, and bugs out of your mouth, help the local women look stylish and keep a beautiful ghostly-white complexion, but they are useless against the more important threats to your lungs. Here is a link for some selected 3M masks, any of which would be probably be better than what you have now
abcsafetymart.com/3M-dust-ma … ators.html

The breathing hazards here are fine particulates (smoke, diesel soot, dust) and hepa-filtration would be required to completely neutralize the threat to your lungs. Bear in mind that the masks listed in the above link are not hepa-filter masks, but are certainly better than a “comfort mask”. Trouble is, if you wore a highly restrictive hepa-filter mask while riding your bike, it would restrict the oxygen to your lungs, perhaps seriously. In the case of carbon monoxide, it’s a gas, and there’s nothing you can do to keep it out of your lungs, short of a supplied-air respirator system, which is clearly even more unpractical!

Sadly, anything I do to protect my lungs while riding my bike is going to be a compromise. Still, I choose to try to be active, and to get out and ride. More than anything, I wish the locals here in Taiwan were less tolerant of the stupid practices that have rendered the air in Kaohsiung so dangerous to our collective health in the first place. The big diesels and cars are bad enough, but in such a dry environment, the kind of unrestricted burning that is allowed here, be it for waste disposal, agricultural or ritual purposes, is simply idiotic.

yep… I work in the bike industry and in some bike publication I saw recently, I read a study where the conclusion was that even in “mild to moderate” urban pollution (it was a study conducted in Europe AFAIK) you do yourself more harm exercising, jogging, cycling etc in the air pollution than you would by just staying at home on the couch and not exercising at all… :s

I guess the same would be true only more so in Taiwan, the key difference being that the air quality in your living room here in Taiwan is almost definitely worse than the down town curb side air quality in most large European cities…

I would think that all but the most sophisticated and bulky air filter masks would accomplish by and large nothing, not to mention how crappy it feels doing sustained cardio exercise with a gas mask on… :laughing:

www.respro.com makes a variety of masks for off-road cyclists and urban cyclists…I think that is what you are looking for…bike stores and outdoor stores generally carry them…

[quote=“plasmatron”]yep… I work in the bike industry and in some bike publication I saw recently, I read a study where the conclusion was that even in “mild to moderate” urban pollution (it was a study conducted in Europe AFAIK) you do yourself more harm exercising, jogging, cycling etc in the air pollution than you would by just staying at home on the couch and not exercising at all… :s

I guess the same would be true only more so in Taiwan, the key difference being that the air quality in your living room here in Taiwan is almost definitely worse than the down town curb side air quality in most large European cities…
[/quote]

In Kaohsiung perhaps, but not Taipei. In fact most Europeans I know wonder why North Americans complain so much about the air in Taipei. They say it is not much worse, or comparable to the air in major European cities. Statistics bear that out.

BTW, do any of your guys know about the bike route they are building along the Gaoping River? It is supposed to go from Linyuan north until it joins with a trail heading west from Meinong. That sounds like a 60-80km long trail. I suppose the section around Linyuan wouldn’t be nice, but the ride further north and toward Meinong should be pretty.

Yes, Zhao Ming is right next to the path there. Trouble is that it’s not contiguous, and it’s difficult to pick up the pieces of the path in some spots, which makes for a lot of searching and backtracking. Older sections of the path are already starting to grow over, or be reclaimed by the locals selfishly putting their shit in public space, but hey, that’s Taiwan. So far I’ve ridden both sides of it south of route 88, and the Pingtung side is not bad at all. The southern end of the Linyuan side paralells a loud dusty truck route, and then passes right next to the massive oil/chemical/industrial site near the route 17 bridge.

That’s strange - I notice the air here is much worse. When the automatic doors open at Heathrow I can feel a sharp difference - and that’s at one of the busiest airports!

[quote=“Pluck-A-Duck”]www.respro.com makes a variety of masks for off-road cyclists and urban cyclists…I think that is what you are looking for…bike stores and outdoor stores generally carry them…[/quote]Right. A carbon filter mask helps a bit.

I definitely notice that Taipei seems to have much better air quality than almost anywhere else on the West coast… Without a doubt Taichung has gotten progressively worse in the last 6 years, most days it’s way worse than LA here, and some days it’s worse than Guang Dong!.. I suppose Taipei has the advantage of having regular rain showers to remove some of the air borne particulates and filth…

That said I also agree with Dangermouse that European cities I visit annually are way ahead of anywhere in urban Taiwan according to my highly calibrated lung-o-meters… :wink:

I’d want to see some links with numbers before entertaining a seemingly ridiculous claim as that. Back in the 1990s I recall a news story citing Taipei as the world’s worst for CO content in its air, with Kaohsuing second for same and first for CO2 emissions. True or not then or now, it certainly wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility.

As others have stated, these types of masks provide little protection from the dangerous stuff, and because they can make it difficult to breathe, you likely compensate by breathing more vigorously, and thus deeper… not good.

I actually said no protection from the dangerous stuff. What is the carbon in those flat-fitting face masks for? Nothing. All it does is mask the smell of exhaust gases which enter your lungs. They’re simply another local style “comfort mask”.
Furthermore, all of the disposable masks, even the slightly better industrial-masks I linked to, are not capable of hepa-filtration, so none of them are any good for the other category of dangerous stuff we encounter out on the road, the fine particulates (dust, smoke, etc). With any of the paper masks, industrial grade or not, what little protection they afford is negated unless you have a proper face seal. You’ll keep the sticks, rocks and bugs out of your mouth, but that’s about it. If your glasses are fogging up, you don’t have a proper seal.
Those biker-style masks are cute, but are they rated by any reputable testing organization for what they effectively protect against? They claim to be hepa-filters, and if the mask does what they claim, it could be worth buying. Respro sure makes some tall claims for what they are capable of though:

I’d want to see some links with numbers before entertaining a seemingly ridiculous claim as that. Back in the 1990s I recall a news story citing Taipei as the world’s worst for CO content in its air, with Kaohsuing second for same and first for CO2 emissions. True or not then or now, it certainly wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility.[/quote]

Beijing now has the world’s worst air. And what I experienced there over the summer is far and away worse than anything I have experienced here in recent years.

UK PM10 (particulate matter) concentrations are about 20-30 on average.
airquality.co.uk/archive/bul … pe=Current

Most of Taipei is around 30 this afternoon, and that also is average according to my experience. .
210.69.101.63/emc/default2.aspx? … lyE&area=1

LA readings are up to 29 in places yesterday.

SO2 readings for the UK average 5-15. I’m not exactly sure what the subindex is on the Taipei charts but it may be maximum or average readings. Anyway, you can see they are similar to UK readings. Other sources suggest a daily average of 5-7.

CO readings look normal and compare well with UK readings.

A recent worldwide environmental report from Harvard recorded Taiwan’s ozone levels as comparing favorably to US cities. PM10 is higher but ozone is lower.

Reports from the 1990s have no bearing on the situation today. The air quality has improved immensely in the past 10, and especially 5 years. The MRT and the two day weekend contributed, as have emmisions testings, wetting of streets to reduce dust, the banning of leaded gas, new expressways and streets (to reduce traffic jams and hence pollution buildups), and the reducing of sulphur in gasoline.

Remember that most of Taipei’s air pollution is caused by cars (and stuff blowing in from China). Therefore, if you get away from traffic the air is not bad, and every night the air has a chance to clear itself of pollution. The two day weekend also helps as there is an easing of traffic 2 days a week.

The worst air quality happens when we get inversions and sand storms from China. On those days, stay indoors.

The EPA as set a goal to reduce air pollution by 30% over the next few years. I see no reason that they won’t succeed. In another 5 years this city will no longer be known for having air pollution. It will have it of course but it will be no more an issue than it is for Tokyo or London or New York.

They may not do much for your lungs, but when a girl pulls up next to me on a scooter wearing the leopard print variety, it never fails to make me smile.

Ecaps

I’d want to see some links with numbers before entertaining a seemingly ridiculous claim as that. Back in the 1990s I recall a news story citing Taipei as the world’s worst for CO content in its air, with Kaohsuing second for same and first for CO2 emissions. True or not then or now, it certainly wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility.[/quote]

Beijing now has the world’s worst air. And what I experienced there over the summer is far and away worse than anything I have experienced here in recent years.
[/quote]

Who cares about Beijing?

[quote=“Muzha Man”]
UK PM10 (particulate matter) concentrations are about 20-30 on average.
airquality.co.uk/archive/bul … pe=Current

Most of Taipei is around 30 this afternoon, and that also is average according to my experience. .
210.69.101.63/emc/default2.aspx? … lyE&area=1.[/quote]
That must be worse in summer then. So the UK is cleaner than Taipei. I still think major european cities are cleaner than Taipei as most major european cities don’t even have plenty highrise and endless amounts of scooters (not to mention those low emission car rules in place) and aren’t in a subtropical zone. But who cares. Taipei is a dirty place overall.

[quote=“Persephone”]Hi Everyone,

I’ve started settling into my life here in Kaohsiung. For the first time in my life, I’m riding a bicycle on the street and getting daily cardio exercise. My friend gave me this white disposable mask to wear whenever I go outside, but I wonder, does it really protect my lungs from all the vehicle exhaust and dust on the street? Also, I find it’s hard to breathe through when I go fast and it makes my glasses fog up. Is there a better way? Or do you just get used to breathing through the mask after a while?[/quote]

Are you just finding excuses that riding the bike must be good as you can’t afford a scooter right now? Think about it. If you already think breathing (desperately) trough a mask might help your lungs trough that dirty air helps can it really be good to ride a bike here? Not to mention that the traffic can kill you. I don’t know if you are downtown Kaohsiung, but riding a bike per day is probably worse than a pack of cigarettes per week for your lungs as you really inhale the air deeply. Grow up and buy a scooter.

It is worse on days when it is worse and better on days when it is better. Those UK averages change too you know. :unamused:

Excuse me, but if you do not wish to participate in the discussion at hand, which is about real statistics, and not our feelings, please go away. Better yet, visit the IP forum. They love to talk about feelings over there when the facts are inconvenient. :laughing:

Thanks for all the responses everyone :slight_smile:

This one, in particular, looks interesting:

Has anyone actually bought one of these masks?

dupe