Seventy years ago cancer was unheard of. Today, seventy years later, cancer was as common as the common cold. What happened?
Seventy years ago, at least in this part of the world, everyone pedalled to school, to work, to the shop for bread and eggs and even to the beach for picnics, the air fresh and unpolluted.
Today, everyone drives or rides a motorbike to all these places, and more, the air heavy with toxic smog and polluted, so bad even babies, just from breathing it, get cancer.
So, what exactly is in the air we breathe nowadays, air polluted by, if we're talking about urban or suburban localities, combustion engine exhaust emissions, leaving aside the zero-carbon emissions of electric vehicles which have yet to become common or fashionable apart from the social status tag such vehicles are sought after by the more affluent upper-middle-to-upper-class echelons of society in this part of the world at least?
Here's what Google says:
Carbon Dioxide (CO2): A significant greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.
Nitrogen Oxides (NOx): Harmful compounds that contribute to smog and acid rain, and are a concern for human health.
Carbon Monoxide (CO): A poisonous gas that reduces the blood's ability to carry oxygen.
Unburned Hydrocarbons (HC): Includes volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matter that contribute to air pollution and smog.
Particulate Matter (PM): Tiny solid particles, often seen as black smoke from diesel engines, that can cause respiratory problems.
Enough to kill an elephant in an enclosed windowless space in five minutes in other words.
Suicidal people used to sit inside their cars, roll up the windows, run a hose from the exhaust pipe to the inside of the car and wait to pass out and die from being gassed to death.
A long time ago, I was at a traffic light stop, on a bike when another bike in front of me with a raised exhaust pipe began shooting puffs of invisible exhaust fumes into my face, a time when like everyone else I rode on traffic congested roads and highways without facial protection, without a mask covering my nose and mouth.
Within days I was suffering from a two-week long bout of flu, sick like a dog, no pun intended.
I've been wearing a face mask ever since whenever I leave the house, even at work, as an air-conditioned office is a perfect example of an enclosed windowless environment where the same smog-polluted air outside is sucked in through the air-conditioning compressor which although filters small particulate matter such as dust has yet the technological ability to filter out the CO, CO2, NOx, unburned hydrocarbons and other volatile organic compounds in the smog-polluted air outside.
So, it works, doesn't it, this cure-all protective measure against smog-polluted air health effects?
Not exactly. Eight hours of breathing smog-polluted air sucked in from the outside through air-conditioner compressor vents even with a face mask on isn't exactly fool-proof as the mask itself cannot filter out the CO especially from air-conditioner filtered smog-polluted air sucked in from the outside, and lung tissue isn't exactly made of iron, steel or titanium.
[to be contd.]
