lineinthewater

So I'm sure you have all been behind a truck or beater that is spewing a toxic exhaust cloud. Sometimes I think I'm smoking a tailpipe. It has me thinking about the cumulative effect of trailing behind all car emissions. Has there been any studies on this issue? I doubt it. I'd like to think the exhaust is sufficiently dispersed to not cause long-term problems, but sometimes I wonder. Anyone have any input?

meanwhile

Just type "cyclists pollution" into google.

Dchiefransom

Out here there's a number to report those cars to the DMV.

Wogster

Tailpipe emissions wouldn't be a problem if there were few cars in a large geographic space, because the pollutants would be sufficiently diluted in the atmosphere. The problem is you typically get a huge number of cars in a confined geographic space, and that means the atmosphere is unable to sufficiently dilute that material, when combined with sunlight and humid conditions with little wind, that creates smog.

There are filtered masks you can get, what I have read about the cycling oriented ones, is that they sometimes work, sometimes don't. There are industrial ones that do work, may be heavy and expensive though. The paper ones you sometimes see, will not filter out all pollutants, but should be good enough for dust, grit and larger particulate matter. Probably more effective is to contact your state, provincial or federal representative and ask why more isn't being done in your area about vehicular pollution.