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In many urban centres, bicycle couriers can often be found sporting respirators that cover their noses and mouths as protection against smog. These couriers and other cyclists have an increased sensitivity to automobile exhaust gases due to the nature of their transportation, whereas the very creators
of the pollution are insensitive to it due to the nature of theirs.
Thus the face masks are not only a necessary piece of gear, but also somewhat of an act of defiance. Worn as if to say, "you are poisoning me!" However, some of these offended cyclists prefer a much less subtle form of communication, and for them there is the Mouthguard Respirator.
Designed after the standard double mouthpiece used primarily by boxers, it is concealed entirely within the mouth and is held in place by biting. The narrow airway allows for inhalation, and directs the air through a filter while cooling it. The first stage of the filter is that which is used on standard respirators, but the second stage utilizes the filtration properties of the mucous saliva of the mouth to filter the air, and can be renewed in a manner similar to spitting.
Double Mouthguard
http://www.casca-gr...ore/catalog/799.JPG
[rcarty, Jul 30 2006]
Cyclist Repsirator
http://images.mec.c...577569830504118.jpg
[rcarty, Jul 30 2006]
Short name, e.g., Bob's Coffee
Destination URL.
E.g., http://www.coffee.com/
Description (displayed with the short name and URL.)
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theory sounds good, but i don't really
know all that much about filters. + |
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It's not a question of who is exposed to more, it's who is more sensitive to it. People who are gulping down atmosphere in large quantities to meet oxygen demands are more sensitive to pullutants than people drving around at resting heart rate. You're right about the face masks, they are uncomfortable and sweaty, and make it hard to suck air in. But they do take the harsh bite off the smog. That's all these respirators are for, to decrease some of the hot, particulate carcinogens from irritating your throat and lungs. |
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//People who are gulping down atmosphere in large quantities to meet oxygen demands are more sensitive to pullutants than people drving around at resting heart rate.//
By a similar logic, it was shown that four people travelling 30 miles in a car produced less CO2 than if they had cycled. |
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Ha. That's an interesting perspective. But incorrect if you factor in the automobile they are driving, which is the point entirely. |
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Both ironic, but not really similar logic though. |
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I'm thinking of a Teething Respirator for little innocent babies with choking asthma. Vroom vroom. |
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//incorrect if you factor in the automobile they are driving//
No, that's the point. The total emissions from a small, modern, correctly-maintained car, including four passengers at resting respiration levels, for the duration of a 30 mile journey are less than those from four panting cyclists (particularly unfit ones) on the same journey. |
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i'm not sure you'll actually find anyone
driving in bumper to bumper traffic with a
resting heart rate. |
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It's your attitude toward bumper to bumper traffic, rather than the traffic itself, that causes an elevated heart-rate. But then it's not your heart that produces CO2. (It's not mine, anyway; YPhysiologyMV.) Also, bumper to bumper traffic was not specified. |
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Sounds like a pretty bunk study anyway. Cars have far more dangerous and deadly emissions than carbon dioxide, and CO2 isn't even being filtered out by any standard respirator. Very rarely do I see a car with four people in it traveling anywhere, let alone thirty miles. Usually they are single passenger vehicles. Cars contribute to urban sprawl which deplete carbon reservoirs. Are a leading cause of a "particularly unfit" society with inefficient respiration. Furthermore, our food energy has a much shorter carbon cycle than petroleum. |
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