Picture link- http://tinyurl.com/6ulefma
Summary: Lots of people live in the city and are at somepoint outside during the day and or night. Wheather its for exercise or just daily commutes, stepping outside puts you at risk to inhale pollutants. With all the cars, trucks, and busses driving around they together produce an extreme amount of pollutation. With all the high buildings, the pollutants will sit, "stuck" inbetween the buildings if they do not rise. Buildings also block the wind and weaken their strength to blow away the pollutants. Environmentalists say that exercising outdoors in a city is like trying to exercise right behind a bus or a car. By running, riding a bike, etc. you increase your heart rate, making you breathe faster. The more you breath, the more toxins you take in. After a couple of hours you most likely have alot of pollutants in your body, as your liver is hard at work trying to get rid of them. Pollutants irritate the lungs and many other parts of the body. "This could lead to diseases and infections", states Dr. Crystal. He also describes how studies have linked pollutants to varius lung and heart diseases, as well as many other hospital admissions, and sometimes, even death. Carbon monoxide has the ablilty to force oxygen out of the body and being over exposed to it can kill you. This is why doctors and environmentalists both advise city folks to be aware of your surroundings in the city. For example if you walk to work near a road that is always backed up with traffic, choose a different route that has less automobiles. They also highly advise people that exercise to exercise indoors in an air-conditioned room. If not possible they advise people to not over work yourself and run or bike in a park instead of on the sides or roads.
Reflection: To me, cities are big fun places to be. I live in the suburbs and so we dont have alot of pollutants just sitting in the air. This makes it easy for people to go outside and exercise. My uncle lives in the city, and he goes to a gym to work out. I dont know if its because there are pollutants outside or if he just likes to watch tv as he runs. Now I will have something to tell him about walking and exercising outdoors in the city. I also find it good that doctors and environmentalists are comming together to help warn citizens about what could happen to them while exercising. If every citizen read this article, then lives could be saved and diseases prevented. Carbon monoxide is a slient killer and it is for the best that people in the city know what could happen because of overexposure. Hopefully this article will limit the amount of drivers in the city as well.
Questions:
1. Do you think pollutants from automobiles is another factor that helps create "smog" that could form in cities? Why or why not?
2. If you were an everyday citizen who ran in the morning for exercise, would you change or not change how you exercise after reading this article? Explain.
3. If you were a city citizen who drove a car to work in the city, would you change your mode of transportation? Why?
4. Do you think the people that are incharge of a city (the city counsole I think) should test for dangerous levels of pollutants in the air every week?
5. What are some ways that we as a human population could make cities "greener"?
I think it is really scary that the air pollution leves are rising so high. Although some cities are making an effort to become more environmentally friendly, they need to work faster and more efficiently, and the cities who are not working towards this need to start. The mayor of the city and the governor of the state need to work together to make sure all the public busses are "green" and there is minimal pollutant leakage from factories and homes. One of the scariest chemicals that people inhale is carbon monoxide, because it is colorless and odorless, and very deadly. If everyone make a conscious decision to become less destructive to the environment.
ReplyDeleteTo answer question 3, Im not exactly sure if I would change my mode of transportation or not. If I took my car, then I would be contributing to the pollution, but if I chose to walk or ride a bike, then I would be inhaling the toxins. I think the best compromise would be to take the subway, because it seems to have the least effect on the pollution in the air. If there was no subway from where I live, I would possibly also take a bus
Extension:
DeleteOpinion: In the fall and summer I am in marching band, and starting this year.we are only going to practice in the evening and night. I am very glad about this, because there are less pollutants in the air at night. Also, we practice away from the road, so it is less polluted.
Question 3: It would depend on the availability of public transportation. If its not, then I think the car would still be the best idea, because you can put the AC on and filter out some of the pollution.
This makes me glad that I don't live in a city because imagine going through an alleyway for a short cut and then in like 1 minute you have tons of pollutants in your body. I was sort of shocked by how exercising in the cities can be like exercising behind a vehicle because I didn't think that pollutants would be THAT bad in cities. I still think that even going in the park because I would think that the pollutants would spread everywhere on the city.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: I will be answering question 2 and I would change my exercising methods by going inside of a gym or in my house because I can just buy a exercise bike, treadmill, and other weight lifting contraptions. I would do this because whats the point of exercising outside if your just getting so much toxins in your body. I think it's pretty ironic how when your exercising your trying to get healthier but exercising outside in the cities your health is worsening
I think that it is very important and we try to encourage people to exercise every day but this is kind of crushing their spirit. They want to exercise to prevent them from getting health issues, but instead they get even more because of the air they are breathing. Its a shame that they have to watch the air they breathe now too. Saying to people "I'm going outside for a breath of fresh air." is irrelevant because you can't even do that anymore. Maybe in more rural areas, but definitely not in the city. To answer question two, I do agree with Adam saying that I would change my habits because of the high risk. Especially the part where the article states that the more you breathe the more pollutants you take in. Some people can't even afford a home treadmill or a gym membership but I guess I would try to find another way to stay fit. Its such a shame.
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