Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Commuter Breathes Salty

If you bike commute in the winter, chances are you're familiar with that dirty salt taste in your mouth after a truck goes by and kicks up a cloud of road salt (and magnesium chloride). It takes a lot of water to make that taste go away. This road salt slurry goes several places besides our lungs, the most fun of which are into local creeks and streams. Passing one of our local creeks this morning I saw this silt sludge build up in a tributary of Sligo Creek. This is the drainage point for several neighborhoods near the intersection of Georgia Ave and Seminary Rd. All of which are covered in sand and salt.



I suspect this is what my lungs look like right now.

It would be nice to find mask out there that would work for cyclists. It would have to be something that can filter out the clouds of pulverized salt but at the same time allows a ton of air to pass through. The lycra face mask will have to do for now.



2 comments:

homer said...

i dont really cycle commute but i'm thinking my lungs are worse because of pollution. sigh.

XxPinxX said...

Why don't you try totobobo mask (http://totobobo.com/blog/totobobo-mask-for-cyclist/) if it works for India it must be pretty good for the rest of the world ^_^