The Air in Your Car
Pollution May Be Greater Inside Your Vehicle Than Outside
By John Martin
ABCNEWS.com
July 1 — It’s rush hour in the city where smog was born: Los Angeles.
Sandra Butler, a technical recruiter, is making her way home to Long Beach: an hour’s drive, one way, at a time when traffic is heavy and the air is foul.
“I’m behind black smoke all the time,” she says.
So what does the typical driver tend to do? Roll up the windows, turn on the air conditioning, with its climate control, which gives the impression of being protected from the dirty air outside.
“You would think that because the air is circulating in the car. I think I’m getting fresh air,” reasons Butler.
But in this case, conventional wisdom is full of hot air. In fact, California’s Air Resources Board studied the air in Los Angeles and Sacramento and found it’s even dirtier inside the car than outside.
Outside, though researchers found plenty of toxic materials — benzene, carbon monoxide. Inside, they found higher concentrations, depending on the vehicle in front of you and how close you are to it.
“It’s about two to 10 times more polluted inside a vehicle on a congested freeway or a major street,” says Mel Zeldin of the Air Quality Management District.
The key, of course, is how much pollution coming out of the truck, bus or car ahead of you is trapped inside your car. Automakers say they’ve been concentrating on what comes out the exhaust, not what gets inside. But so much does get in that, as people spend more time commuting, they are exposed to more bad air.
“It makes me think about all the damage I’ve done to my lungs just from commuting for 4 1/2 years,” says Butler.
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