MOTOR & HEALTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 September 1938, Page 7

MOTOR & HEALTH

A FEW MINOR AFFECTIONS. No dangers to health should arise from the normal use of a motor car either by passenger or driver, in respect of its nature as a machine, according to an English medical authority. The inhalation of exhaust gases is, of course, fraught with serious peril, but there can be few ordinary drivers and users of cars who are not aware of this risk if an engine is left running in a small and badly ventilated garage or workshop, he says. Complaints of dangerous “fumes” noticed by persons in drivers’ seats have seldom much basis in fact. In the great majority of cases ' such “fumes” are not exhaust gases at all, but emanations from dirty engines, which may be unpleasant as odours, but are not definitely inimical'- to health. Their causes should be easily removable.

There are, however, a few minor affections from which some drivers and passengers are liable to suffer. Many people often feel what they describe as “liverish” on the day after a relatively long drive. This may, in a small number of cases, be due to the actual motion of the car—a slight manifestation of the group of disorders included in sea-sickness and trainsickness. But it is probably more often due to the fact that the meals taken while driving have been either too plentiful or unwisely chosen. Very little physical exertion is' demanded by the driving of a car, and less, of course, by merely sitting in it. But what might be called, perhaps a “spurious” appetite is often induced by driving. Too much food is taken for the bodily demands required. Meals during an all-day drive should be light, and whenever possible time should be taken during or at the end of a drive, for at least an hour or two’s brisk walking or other form of physical exercise. For some people, too, the necessary concentration on the road while driving—the continual vision strain imposed on every good and careful driver —may result in eye-weariness or headache. Tinted glasses may be a help in certain cases of this kind, but the only wise course for people who are susceptible to this particular reaction is to ration their driving sensibly. As regards true car-sickness, it is probably, as in the case of sea-sick-ness, due to the reflex effect upon the nerve-supply of the stomach of causes that vary with different persons. The opening of a car, thereby admitting more fresh air and larger and less constantly changing visual horizons, may suffice to prevent the condition in many children and adults.