Anthony,

We have to do more than move to the country; we have to improve the air quality by getting more people to bicycle! We have made some improvements over the years. By removing lead from gasoline, we don't poison inner city kids anymore with that heavy metal. Lead can reduce IQ in small quantities in children, even if it is not observed to be doing other damage. The fact that we now burn unleaded gasoline shows that improvements can be made.

But, on a more serious note, respirators are a viable alternative for some problems. I thought a bit about that at an intersection on my way to work, that if more people wore air purifying HEPA filtered respirators, it may send a message to those people in the "metal boxes" about what they are directly doing to the environment (and we too--I also drive on occasion). We have a lot of people who do not believe in the concepts behind "global warming," and that burning fossil fuels causes a rise in CO2 (and CO--see above) is contributing to that.

John