Exposure To Pollution Greater When You Ride Inside Cars Study says

In 2006 researchers at The Imperial College in London undertook a study on people and their exposure to pollution. They equipped their volunteers with small pollution detection devices and had them travel throughout the city using various modes of transportation. They had them bike, bus, take trains, taxis, and walk all around the city for a total of 584 trips in all. The result was surprising to the researchers. It indicated that of all the methods of transportation it was riding inside of a taxi cab that exposed individuals in their study to the most pollution. They figured that the explanation for this was that taxis tend to get stuck in traffic due to the congestion of cars in the city streets and at these times they are surrounded by other vehicles that are spewing out pollution into the air and that this increases ones exposure levels. The study indicated that the least exposed people to pollution were the ones who walked around the city. They were the farthest away physically from any sources of pollution generally.