Stoplights are hot spots for airborne pollution
Intersections expose drivers to 29 times as many harmful particles as the open road
Being stuck at a red light isn’t just frustrating — it’s bad for your health. Drivers are exposed to more harmful pollutants when idling at intersections than when zooming along an open road, scientists report February 12 in Atmospheric Environment.
When cars and trucks burn fuel, they emit tiny pollutants that have been linked to heart and respiratory illness. To see whether intersections are hot spots for these nanoparticles, researchers drove in a six-kilometer loop through Guildford, England, and measured how the concentration of pollution changed along the route.