Pollution Masks - advice please....

Agreed. London is definitely going to keep getting worse before it gets better - I just want something solid that can get rid of at least some of this shit

Try not to ride behind diesel vehicle when they are accelerating, and producing the highest levels of nasty shit. Ride minor roads where possible. Avoid large areas of gridlock and heavy traffic. There's a map of the worst roads and areas here

https://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/annualmaps.asp

adding 1o mins to your journey is worth the longer life , and diminished aggro.

I'm also working on a plan which involves the mass disabling of combustion driven vehicles. Can't really talk about that though.

I can't say whether or not WAIR is better than something like the Respro but their diagrams imply a fairly thin area of seal and a single point of anchoring. That in itself suggests that its claim of 100% air tightness may not stand up.

Just so you know, the big stuff, the stuff you can smell, is the least likely to cause lasting physiological damage.

More of a question, why are you asking yourself this now that you’re cycling?

You’re exposed to similar air pollution as a pedestrian, even more when driving.

^this

Probably should have made a link to the masks I was talking about. So these are the half face respirators with disposable filters I use at work. Either use the dust filters which will pick out finer particles or vapour filters which remove solvents etc but particles not quite as small: https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/company-uk/3m-products/~/3M-Reusable-Half-Face-Mask-6000-Series/?N=5002385+8709322+8711017+8711405+8720539+8720550+8720785+8726637+3291100221&preselect=3293786499&rt=rud

There’s a disposable version where you throw the whole thing away after 30 days. This will work out cheaper to just give it a go, plus you can normally find them really cheap unused on eBay still in their sealed bags near the end of their use by date: https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/company-uk/3m-products/~/3M-Maintenance-Free-Half-Mask-4000-Series/?N=5002385+8709322+8711017+8711405+8720539+8720550+8720785+8738253+8738602+3291100302&preselect=3293786499&rt=rud

The top one (4251 filter) ought to be good enough. The others add acid gas and chlorine and stuff to the filtration.

All of those will seal to your face really effectively, assuming you haven’t got a beard.

Never tried to do any sport in mine - I’ll try and remember to ride in it this week!

I was on the shitter when I replied and couldn’t be arsed to google it. It turns out the book with the quote on the back cover was in the loo with me, if I’d bothered to look.

Also contains another quote re Feynman (paraphrasing again) - it is said that there are two ways of solving problems in physics. One involves the use of complex mathematics. The other is to ask Richard Feynman.

Valid point. The reason is that I've read several articles stating that the added exertion of cycling means that you're pulling the air in far deeper into your respiratory system than if you're walking or sitting in a vehicle

https://www.sciencealert.com/how-to-fool-facial-recognition-technology-with-juggalo-makeup

I used to hate those fly masks (bottom one you linked). They didn't work with my safety specs.
The 6000 series were much better for that.

Be interesting to see what it's like with a cycle helmet stuck on the headband of the 6000 series!

Definitely all of this. Pollutant levels fall off with a polynomial (I think it's the square, but can't work out why it's not the cube, after all, we're talking a volume here) of the distance from the source. That means 2m away is 4 times better than 1m away, and 10m away (on an adjecent side road) is way better than a mask for the bad stuff, which the mask barely touches.

Also means an extra couple of meters stopped behind a car is well worth it, rather than resting your tyre against the exhaust pipe, as seems popular...

Yeah kind of what I'm planning :)

Haha, yes! I reckon a bodge onto a helmet tightening mechanism is in order...

Think of the surface of a sphere out from the source. The surface area of this sphere goes like the square of the distance. There's a constant amount of stuff distributed over this surface, and because you breathe in through a constant sized area you get an inverse square relationship of particles fluxing into your lungs.