nondes 

We have our first smog advisory of the summer in the Toronto area this weekend. We're advised to limit strenuous activity during smog events. There are more hospital admissions at these times and I'm guessing that 50+ people are more vulnerable than others.

We had very few advisories last summer but the year before was brutal. When they go on for a while I start to wonder whether our bike rides are doing us more harm than good. This morning I thought about going to the gym instead of riding but I opted for a short ride at low intensity.

Do you have these advisories in your area and how do you react?

PaulH

I totally ignore them and do my daily, 25 mile commute. The air seems no different on these days.

locolobo13 

I ignore them also. I know I am doing better cardiovascular wise riding than I would be driving in.

bigbadwullf

No. We don't have them.

If those tests are as good as the "research" done on "air quality", they are worthless.

RonH

No, but my wife does. If its too high she really gives me a hard time about riding.

Bikey Mikey

Last summer we had several times over month or so with air quality alerts. The Great Dismal Swamp was on fire or smoldering and at times the smoke particulates hung thick in the air around Tidewater. I biked anyway and didn't have issues, but if I had emphysema or moderate to severe asthma, I would heed them. I know a few people who had to stay indoors most of the time because the air quality, the smoke, would've been a real problem.

overthehillmedi

Not here but we send all our smog across the pond to the Big Smoke (Vancouver) and then they ship it off east to "the Center of the Universe as they know it" otherwise known in Canada as Toronto.

fietsbob

The atmosphere is in rinse mode here, at present.

jmccain

I do.

Pamestique 

If I did, I could not ride... living in So Cal, smog is a way of life. That said... this year has been exceptionally smoggy... I have been praying for an onshore breeze to blow it away! Sometime it does get difficult to breath... so I use my own body when to tell me to cut the ride short.

nondes 

Well, I'm glad you guys are doing something useful...

chipcom 

I pay attention to them for reference purposes, for use when it comes time to vote, otherwise not so much.

B. Carfree

They don't stop me from riding, but they do influence where I put in my miles. I lived in the Sacramento Valley as it changed from having generally pristine air, except during rice-field burning, to one of the smoggiest air basins in the nation. (This coincided with I-80 changing from an empty roadway to a bumper to bumper mess.) I would always ride towards the coast on the worst smog days. Now that I am 500 miles north of there, I do the same thing, although it is to escape winter burning and late Spring grass pollen. I love rain; it removes the particulates that Bubba dumps into the air while also reducing the pollen counts to bearable levels.

stapfam

No longer do as Britain-Along with the rest of Europe- has targets for air pollution. In fact for any pollution.

I live in an area that has plenty of open spaces with the English Channel on the south of it. Right on top of the hills and only a couple of miles from the sea there is a pollution monitoring base. There must be a reason for sighting it on the top of a hill- in a non populated area and on a windy ridge. There is nothing around to pollute that area unless you count the Road that runs along the south coast but it is surprising how often that the pollution levels recorded are significantly high in comparison to the rest of the UK. Never affected me as I have been riding up by the station on "Bad" days and other than the usual lack of breath from riding up bloody steep hills- it is not apparent.

I am old enough to remember the London Smogs of the 50's. Big city- only heating by coal fires and although they were fewer in number- the vehicles did not have any emission controls. If you could see 1 yard in front of you then you were lucky but those days are well gone.

nondes 

Yes Stapfam, I remember the "pea soupers" in Manchester in the "50s. My arms were shorter then and I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. Got lost on my way to school once.

edit: I'm expecting someone to post a link to the Monty Python "when I were a lad" (Four Yorkshiremen) sketch any minute now....

Today's smog isn't nearly as bad visually (usually a brownish smudge along the horizon) but the medical people still seem to be bothered about it. We're on Lake Ontario but the smog affects the entire region.

Dudelsack 

I pay more attention to the heat advisories. We've had several heat related deaths over the past few years, so if the index is nudging 100 I cool it.

stapfam

Those smogs we used to have were bad and you could see and smell the pollution. Today's Pollutants are a different kind with All sorts of gases being the cause and they may not be such a visual problem but they will cause a lot of medical problems. But as I say- Europe is taking action and in very big steps to cut the pollution problem. We used to have road tax on cars that every vehicle payed and cars all paid the same amount. It is now variable and can be called a Pollution Tax. Bigger cars- bigger engines- more noxious gases emitted and you pay more tax. Electric and a few small cars like the Citroen C1 pay no tax.