Breathing air pollution while driving in rush hour traffic!

[NW Admin]

I generally work from home, but on occasion, I have to venture out into central Ohio to run errands. Many times, I find myself in rush hour traffic and a lot of air pollution.

Being that I do not travel a lot and spend a lot of time in my house with the air conditioning on, I am really sensitive to the smells of the outside world. I find myself extremely bothered and concerned about the way the air smells during rush hour traffic. I can see all the vehicles around me polluting the air and it's disgusting. I can't help but think (while I'm smelling what is clearly toxic chemicals), that I am harming myself. I want to hold my breath and run to the nearest oxygen tank.

I am so thankful that my 2009 Camry has a feature that allows me to either block incoming airflow from the outside or allow the outside air to come in. It was a beautiful morning the other day while I was stuck in traffic. At first, I had my windows down and was enjoying the cool breeze, but the smell just really got to me so I ended up rolling up the windows, turning on interior air AC only, and stewing about how much that irritated me. I use that air filtration and inner circulation system all the time because of the toxic smells outside. Once I turn that on, I don't smell anything like that anymore. It's always something... fertilizer, diesel, factory pollution, and waste management air pollution. Ugh! It's so gross!

It seriously makes me feel very uneasy about the way things are going on this planet. There is going to be a day when no one can breathe the air outside. People are going to have to start wearing masks. And everyone just goes on about their lives like they just don't even care. Honestly, it pisses me off.