Delaware 2013 Bicycle Friendly State “Report Card”
Between May of 1997 and March of 2008 (over 10 years), Delaware’s unemployment rate was between 3 and 4%. But for the last four years, unemployment has stubbornly...
We know what we want. And it all comes back to the “Bike and Pedestrian Improvements” program authorization for the Delaware Department of Transportation. We...
by Melissa Nann Burke The News Journal February 15, 2013 Relatively few Delaware workers commute by bike, but they might reconsider when cyclists are whizzing...
By Jeannine Stein, Los Angeles Times – You’ve decided to help your health and the environment by riding your bike to work. Good for you! Sorry to have to deliver the bad news: you may be inhaling more soot.
The amount might be more than twice as much as urban pedestrians, says a pilot study presented Sunday at the European Respiratory Society’s Annual Congress. The study involved five cyclists who regularly biked to work and five pedestrians from London. They ranged in age from 18 to 40 and were healthy nonsmokers.
Researchers analyzed airway microphage cells from the participants’ sputum samples. Airway microphage cells guard the body against foreign bodies such as viruses and bacteria. The cyclists were found to have 2.3 times the amount of black carbon in their lungs compared with the pedestrians.
“The results of this study have shown that cycling in a large European city increases exposure to black carbon,” said co-author Chinedu Nwokoro in a news release. “This could be due to a number of factors including the fact that cyclists breathe more deeply and at a quicker rate than pedestrians while in closer proximity to exhaust fumes, which could increase the number of airborne particles penetrating the lungs.”
Other studies have weighed the health risks and benefits of urban cycling; one 2010 study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives looked at what might happen if 500,000 people in the Netherlands traded their cars for bicycles for short daily trips, and measured the outcome in life-years gained or lost.
By increasing their exercise, bike riders would gain three to 14 months of life. The possible effect on mortality would mean 0.8 to 40 days lost from inhaling more air pollution, and five to nine days off from the hike in traffic accidents. Advantage: cycling. [Full article in the Chicago Tribune ...]
Recent Articles
By Jay Walljasper Published in Bicycle Times People across the country were surprised … when Bicycling Magazine named Minneapolis America’s “#1 Bike...
“When I first saw the headline, I figured either LAB had gone crazy or else I had.” – recent comment by Bike Delaware reader Just a few...
The City of Wilmington, Bike Wilmington and its supporters/sponsors are proud to hold the third annual Bike-to-Work Day (May 17th). Bike-to-Work Day is a National...
The most cost-effective way to increase bicycling in Delaware
We need a lot more bicycling in Delaware. You can make that happen by supporting Bike Delaware.
Copyright © 2013 Bike Delaware. All rights reserved.
3 Comments
[...] to refute the common misperception that high-rise housing is (much) more expensive than low-rise. Bike Delaware shares the result of a study that found cyclists inhale more soot than pedestrians, but their [...]
The thing I can’t believe about the London study is that there were only ten participants- five cyclists and five pedestrians. I don’t get how their study can possibly be accurate with such a small sample size.
Although the inhalation of contaminants is higher in cyclists compared with other modes of transport, health impacts must take into account other exposures such as traffic accidents and physical activity. In the end the health benefits outweigh the risks as suggested by this article in the British Medical Journal. http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d4521.abstract?sid=1e89a694-82e3-434d-af1f-90f25ef33ee0