It is sad. The people who are doing something to reduce the effects of fossil fuels on the planet are the ones breathing in more pollution. Like second hand smoke, its just dangerous.

lol...I was thinking about some graffiti I saw once that said something very similar:

"Eat Healthy, Exercise a lot, Die Anyway"

You don't have to go inside to avoid air pollution.

Check the website www.airnow.gov for air pollution levels in your town. The website is very accurate about it's smog forcasts.

Usually, if there's going to be a problem with smog that day, it will be during a summer afternoon, but it varies a lot according to the weather. So there's no need to be alarmed. In the morning, the air quality is usually very good. If the smog is forcast to be heavy in the afternoon, take an easy pace home and take the back roads, or put your bike on the bus. You can even take the afternoon off from riding.

I'm no automobile apologist, everyone here probably knows that.
With that aside, first of all, if you're in a crappy car, you're probably breathing in some real nasty crap. Second of all, with HEPA style carbon filters, the air inside a car is a lot cleaner than the air outside the car. Third of all, every time I go out for anything over 2 hours and come home at night after work, I can wipe my face with a white towel and it'll come out gray, which is the same stuff going into my lungs. Fourth of all, we're sucking in a lot more air than someone sitting still in a car. Fiveth of all, we get an awful lot of sun exposure too, automobile glass blocks out some UV. Sixeth of all, not everyone in an automobile is out of shape and wheezing.

I didn't read the article, but I wonder if the amount of pollution reaching your lungs can be lessened some by breathing through your nose rather than through your mouth. You've got a lot more hairs and mucus and disgusting stuff like that that will trap stuff in your nasal passageways than through your mouth. I've found that even when breathing heavy, I can get in a good amount of breath quickly through my nose, although not so quickly breathing out. So I often try to breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, especially in heavy traffic.

I swear a guy at a bus stop blew a huge cloud of cigarette smoke just in time for me to pass through this am. I can't imagine anyone would have good enough timing and aim to do that deliberately, though.

I do find myself holding my breath periodically behind buses, they seem to belch more when they speed up.

The busses in Cincinnati were converting to biodiesel shortly before I left, and riding behind one smelled like doing laps in a McD's parking lot.

I dunno.

I live in Toronto (rather big), I bike on some busy streets.

When I wipe my face with a towel at the end of the day, the towel remains white. I am very sensitive to smells, and the only time I have trouble with exhaust on my rides is when I am stuck behind a bus or a large truck - and that's pretty rare. I think I am lucky as far as location is concerned. It used to be much worse in my hometown in Siberia that had fewer cars but also fewer (in fact, none, as far as I know) exhaust regulations.

All in all, it is a valid concern. But, in my humble, the positives outweight the negatives considerably.

Yep, she's like one of those people who think biking in traffic is insanely dangerous and cyclists should never mix with cars for their own good. Good intentions, but my oh my, how misguided...

I live in Toronto too. today I was out at Queen St./Spadina and was running to get to a store. Honestly, the pollution was brutal, combined with the hot 35 degree wether. I had to stop and walk. To not, I am extremely fit and athletic with great cardio.

Yeah, that deep into the downtown jungle it can get pretty bad, I guess. And the heat definitely doesn't make anything easier.

However, when I biked from Queen and Broadview to St. Clair and Spadina recently, exhaust was not a problem. All I was noticing was HEAT. I guess the key is to avoid congested roads; I find those particularly bad when it comes to pollution.

The tone of the article seems a quite discouraging considering it is in a magazine that encourages exercise. I would have expected the more positive focus of "Ways to minimise pollution exposure" rather than 'Dying breaths".

Whilst an interesting read, the contents of that article won't be my biggest concern any time soon.
I think being run over is a much more immediate danger than being poisoned to death!

Yes, the article specifically mentions that. But one thing the article does not mention is that you can ride at a leisurely pace, breathing in almost exclusively through your nose. Also, there are quiet alternate routes I can take that are much cleaner than the main arteries.

I think the article could have been more balanced. Other doctors and experts could be quoted who would point out that it's not necessary to exercise indoors. It's a fact that air pollution is not always at hazardous levels and that heavy smog days are predictable and avoidable. The article would have us believe that we are killing ourselves, which is completely false.