ASPECTS OF HEALTH

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 26, 30 July 1938, Page 28

ASPECTS OF HEALTH

RIDING IN CARS

SOME MINOR DISORDERS

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 arid 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' scats

have seldom much basis : inp fact. In the great; majority of : leases . such "fumes" are not exhaust gases at all, but -emanations from ;' dirty engines, which may, be unpleasant as odours but 4are not definitely inimical to health. Their causes should be easily removable. ■:••-■.■ ■-, .« :■. , ; ■■ ■; •■.. ,■;...;•■..

There are, however, a few riiinor i affections-f9om which some drivers and passengers are liable to: suffer.- Many, people often feel what they describe as "liverish" on the day after a felatively long drive. This may, in a small number of cases, be due to the actual motion7of the car—a slight manifestation of the group of disorders included in ysea-sickness and train-sick-ness.. ' But it is probably more often due to the fact that the meals taken while driving have been either tob plentiful or unwisely chosen. I Very little physical exertion is demanded by the drvirig 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 timjeshould 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 driv-, ing—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 serisibly. As regards true car-sickness, it is probably, as in the case of sea-sickness, due to the.reflex effect upon the nervesupply 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.