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| CURRENT WARNING - Older Adults Should Limit Outdoor Activity - and How Old are "Older" Adults? |
One of the above came out at 4:46PM this afternoon, precisely as I was halfway home on my bike. After the fact warnings are not too useful!
Sometimes government, at least at the local level, is phenomenally responsive. One might wonder about this sometimes. I'll give you an example. NCTCOG sends me email alerts when pollution levels get high. Things are, in theory, pretty bad when there is an Orange Pollution Warning. We're told to limit outdoor activity.
The alerts that have been issued SINCE "Bike to Work Day" look like the picture above. I asked the NCTCOG lady about those warnings, and particularly their mention of bikes as shown in the "before" warnings that are pictured below.
No, I didn't suggest they actually eradicate cycling from their suggestions, merely that they might want to consider what they are advising. Mostly, I get these after I have left for work and am checking my email at Starbucks on the way home. Yup, simply based on a semi-serious inquiry at BTW Day, NCTCOG has changed their email broadcasts. I was surprised, particularly after the response I got from Fort Worth when I made input to their bike plan.
Government response aside, has anyone in otherwise reasonable health ever suffered some sort of damage due to failure to limit outdoor activity during such episodes? For example, would the Cowboys or Rangers cancel a game due to a pollution warning?
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| Before BTW Day, We Older Types Were Supposed to Limit Outdoor Activity but Were Also Supposed Bike or Walk Instead of Driving |
3 comments:
I'll check the airnow.gov site and avoid riding when it's red. Particularly (ha ha) PM2.5 days, since no one needs those fines nestled deep in the lungs. As for impacts to sensitive groups, see The Impacts of Short-Term Changes in Air Quality on Emergency Room and Hospital Use in California's San Joaquin Valley from the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at Fresno State, quote "Our findings show that asthma ER admissions are strongly linked to increasing PM2.5 across the region, with a higher risk in children. Risk for asthma hospitalizations also increased dramatically with PM2.5 in children and adults across the region. Moderate risk for acute Myocardial Infarction hospital admissions were also linked to PM2.5 levels regionally, as were pneumonia ER visits in children and acute bronchitis ER visits in adults"
I haven't had any permanent damage (yet) but I get a little hoarse on Orange and Red days when I ride my bike to get somewhere. Usually if I know it's Red I ride very easy, nothing that would raise my respiration to much, just a little below "Fat Burning" pace. for JRA: here in TX we don't get many PM days, ours tend to be Ozone exclusively.
How about that for a way to discourage transportation cycling? Foul up the air so badly with vehicle exhaust and other combustion byproducts to the point where non-motorized mobility is dangerous to your health! Game, set and match to the fossil fuel industry. Later you can drive around in your hybrid with your oxygen tank. Electro-stimulation of your disused muscles will eliminate the need for exercise. The minimal current required can easily come from solar panels on the roof of the car and at home in your sealed apartment with closed-circuit ventilation.
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No Need for Non-Robot proof here!