Sitting in traffic is eroding your health. Here’s what drivers can do

The cumulative days’ worth of time spent locked in one position, immersed in vehicle exhaust, stress and road rage, may slowly be whittling away our health, experts tell the Star. Take a look at some of the ways our bodies can be affected.

Health effects of traffic pollution

The health toll of traffic pollution is well documented by a litany of studies, from raising the risk of early death by heart disease, stroke and lung cancer to potentially permanently altering the way our DNA is expressed.

It’s especially taxing on young children, raising their chances of developing asthma and serious respiratory infections, according to Jeffrey Brook, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

“There’s some evidence that it affects the unborn fetus,” Brook told the Star, pointing to a recent study he helped perform that found altered DNA in the umbilical cord blood of newborns, specifically in regions related to lung development, after being exposed to traffic pollution while in the womb.

Idling vehicles caught in gridlock for hours continue to spew pollutants into the air, miring drivers and the surroundings in carcinogenic compounds, Brook explained: “Ultimately, the amount of emissions depends on how many tailpipes you have per square metre,” he said.

Among these are so-called “ultrafine particles,” microscopic fragments 35 times smaller than the width of a hair that “are ubiquitous in all types of combustion, he continued. “They can get into very many different parts of the body, including the brain, and there are no regulations right now … especially (concerning) when you think about neurodegenerative diseases (like dementia), which has been linked to traffic pollution.”

Amid congested traffic on the 401, Brook’s team once counted 1.5 million of these particles in a pocket of air the size of a sugar cube. “Typically we would expect in the city, in the background, maybe 5,000 (particles in the same area),” he continued.

Expert advice

The people living around heavily-congested areas will likely bear the brunt of traffic pollution’s health effects — but that doesn’t mean drivers are exempt, especially if you have your windows rolled down while sitting in stalled traffic: “If you’re driving with the windows down, there’s really no difference,” Brook said.

He urged drivers to instead use your vehicle’s air-recirculation feature while keeping your air conditioning on, which can help insulate you from the outside air. “Your behaviour with ventilation makes a big difference,” he continued.

Prolonged sitting in traffic can be a pain in the neck (and back)

Anyone sitting in one position for prolonged periods of time is at risk of discomfort and back pain — but drivers are especially vulnerable, given they’re unable to get up and stretch their legs in the middle of traffic, according to Stephen Brown, an associate professor and spine kinetics expert at the University of Guelph.

“There are a number of people who will develop discomfort in their lower back, upper back and their buttocks region — even up in the neck,” he said. “That’s not going to be the case for everyone, but there are a significant number of people out there who find constrained, prolonged sitting to be uncomfortable.”

Over time, the pain “slowly progresses and develops,” with each traffic jam or road trip you sit through exacerbating your level of pain and how quickly it appears. “What took 30 minutes to start feeling uncomfortable may start in ten minutes a few months from now if you’re in traffic jams on a regular basis,” he said.

In the long-run, some drivers may even develop debilitating issues like chronic back or neck pain, Brown explained.

Expert advice

He recommended drivers to make use of built-in lumbar supports if present and otherwise adjusting their seats to remain as comfortable as possible. “But probably the most important thing would be what a person does when they get out of their car,” he continued.

“If you’re driving to an office job and you’re stuck in traffic for an hour and a half, do your best not to immediately sit down,” Brown advised. “If you have a standing desk, try to stand while you work for some time. If you can walk, spend some time walking, moving around — that’s best.”

Gridlock’s tax on mental health

If you’ve ever been caught in traffic when you need to be somewhere, you can likely relate to the suffocating feeling of helplessness and unpredictability many experience in gridlock.

Traffic’s toll on mental health has been extensively studied, with evidence suggesting those living in heavily congested areas who also report traffic stress experience greater depressive symptoms and lower health status overall.

Getting caught in traffic is such a negative experience that one study found drivers in Beijing would rather trade one minute caught in traffic for five minutes of leisure time.

Furthermore, a 2022 Leger survey found 78 per cent of Canadians witnessed road rage behaviour — while 51 per cent admitted to doing it themselves.

Studies have documented how exposure to traffic raised the odds of a heart attack in those susceptible, as well as elevated the blood pressure of drivers caught in congestion versus driving in lighter traffic. It’s unclear whether these effects were directly linked to stress or road rage, however.

Expert advice

If you feel the stress and rage boiling up, take a deep breath and try to remember — traffic isn’t the end of the world. Instead of focusing on the actions of others and other things you can’t control, direct that attention to your own actions and what you can do in the moment.

“It’s hard to say how each person internalizes that stress,” Brook said. “But I hate it as well — it’s why I’ll ride a crowded train and never drive. And I think that can be productive sometimes.”