Health security

Driving with the windows down on a clear blue day may feel refreshing. Really, though, that breeze is toxic.

According to new research, you’re dosing yourself with high levels of harmful air pollution every time you stop at a red light. Braking at traffic lights, and then accelerating when they turn green, makes up only around 2 percent of the time a driver spends in the car. Yet that scant amount of time makes up fully 25 percent of a driver’s total air pollution exposure, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Atmospheric Environment. The concentration of pollution particles in these moments are as much as 29 times higher than concentrations seen while the car is simply cruising, the study found.

Drivers Exposed to 29 Times More Air Pollution While Stopped at Red Lights, Study Finds