The Grim Reaper
Your Emissions Today
No. 12 in a never-ending series. Winter 1994
The Convenience of the Motor Car
Here's a riddle:-
They contribute to global warming and the ozone hole. They kill 4000 people violently and poison another 10,000 to death each year. They injure 300,000 people and squash millions of reptiles, birds and small mammals annually. They cause asthma, heart disease, and bronchitis, but most of us, being of a forgiving nature, still love them dearly. What are they?
You got it! CARS.
Here's another riddle:-
They produce radioactivity and cause childhood leukaemia, often found in clusters. What are they?
You got it again! CARS.
It was already known that radiation in childrens' teeth was raised in urban areas, but Dr. Dennis Henshaw of Bristol University has now discovered that even children living in the country have raised levels of polonium 210 in their teeth if they live within about 10km of a motorway. Frighteningly, this may explain many of the mysterious rural childhood leukaemia clusters.
Polonium 210 is very nasty. It's a radioactive by-product of decayed oil or petrol combustion. It's inhaled by anyone who happens to breath and then attaches to your (yes, YOUR) bone marrow. It emits alpha radiation which is then known to cause leukaemia as well as brain, liver and kidney tumours. Children, who bear no responsibility for this crime are especially vulnerable.
It is usually at this point in my column that I make a flippant comment to lighten the proceedings of my gloomy outpourings - but words fail me. I can not find humour where there is none.
The Grim Reaper
To breathe, or not to breathe?
