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Health Effects of Idling

Idling your car has a negative impact on your health. Although most people realize that engine exhaust decreases outdoor air quality, they probably do not realize that an idling engine actually releases more harmful emissions than an engine does during driving! The reason for this is that engines are engineered to run most efficiently at a high temperature. Because an idling engine runs at a lower temperature, it does not fully combust all of the fuel that is injected into the combustion chamber. The result of this is that even more dangerous, complex chemical compounds are released into the air.

These emissions are not harmless: Health Canada's estimations are that there are 5000 premature deaths in Canada every year as a result of air pollution. The conclusions of a three-year, $600,000 study for Health Canada on the impact of urban air pollution are alarming: they found that "Higher death rates were seen to correspond with high pollution days in Canadian cities", that "Course air particles showed a strong effect on asthma and hospitalization", and perhaps most frighteningly that "Children were found to be at increased risk for acute respiratory problems from short term exposure". This study can be found online here.

The most notable effects of air pollution are causing difficulty breathing, increasing susceptibility to and danger from lung and respiratory diseases like asthma and bronchitis, and an increase in hospitalization and death from cardiovascular illness. By irritating lung tissues, air pollutants cause inflammation and so decrease the lungs' ability to take oxygen into the bloodstream. Long-term exposure can lead to permanent lung tissue damage. Health Canada has shown that breathing 'dirty' air also causes constriction of blood vessels, which increases the risk of serious cardiovascular problems and hospitalization.

Asthma in children has seen a rise in occurrence of over 400% in the past twenty years. Whether or not you believe that asthma can be caused by inhalation of air pollutants, it is clear that air pollution can at least be a trigger for asthma attacks. The importance of having fewer respiratory irritants around an increasing number of asthmatic children is obvious.

If you are interested in learning more about how air quality relates to health, please refer to Health Canada's Air Quality website section, specifically the portion concerning the Health Effects of Air Pollution.