Ever feel like one more day of commuting will kill you? You might be right, especially if you live in Riverside, California. Or Atlanta. Or Los Angeles. Those are the top three cities on
Forbes' list of the 25 with the most unhealthy commutes.
The combination of dangerous drivers, the stress of dealing with them and high levels of air pollution is apparently taking a serious toll on big-city commuters' health. Forbes quotes one study showing Americans commute an average of 25 minutes every day, but are exposed to 50% of the day's pollution during their drives. One study found diesel particle levels four to eight times greater inside commuters' cars than outside. That's nothing to sneeze at.
Southern California gets four spots on the list, with Houston, Miami, Detroit and Washington, D.C., taking some of the others.
There are ways to make your drive to and from work healthier, though. Forbes recommends you roll up your windows and set the air to recirculate. That will reduce some of the incoming air, and maybe some of the particulates that clog up your respiratory plumbing. Another health-saving solution is to take the long way home. Taking that curvy road home will not only give your inner F1 driver an outlet, but it will also avoid all those particulates spewed by diesel trucks on the highways.
[Source: Forbes, photo by
K.C. Hohensee]
