Cycling and walking make you live longer but your carbon monoxide levels are higher if you cycle or walk along side traffic.

Last November at the British Society of Sport and exercise Medicine’s annual conference one of the speakers quoted a 45% decrease in your chance of death if you cycled to work instead of taking the bus.

That’s a big difference.

The study quoted was reported in 2017 in the well known medical journal the BMJ.

As is common the majority of people who cycle are men which may be because they are braver- due to busy roads and few cycle lanes- or less worried about their hair style than women!

So it seems that even the risk in the UK of a road traffic accident does not outweigh the lifelong benefit of cycling to work and it seems to be more beneficial than walking to work which is surprising.

My concern when cycling to work is not only the traffic but it’s the pollution we breath from traffic.

People who walk to work or cycle to work along busy roads such as the Ormeau road in Belfast, have carbon monoxide levels in their blood similar to smokers- now that is worrying!

Tina- our health practitioner previously ran smoking cessation workshops and tested people’s carbon monoxide levels. She found that non smokers who walked to work had levels of CO similar to their colleagues who smoked.

Nurses who run the pregnancy clinic measure CO in a breath test for women even if you dontt smoke, they have found that women who cycle in traffic have high CO levels.

I highlight this as a reminder thtat yes, wlaking and cycling and good for our health, but traffic and exhaust fumes are not.

Think about where your children stand to wait on a bus: is it beside traffic?

Where do you go running or walking, is it along a busy road?

If so your are breathing in CO with each step.

The fumes you smell from cars is not CO. CO is odourless.

Everyone’s keen to stay or get healthy, that means demanding cleaner air with better public transport and less cars on our roads. We can’t ignore it.