Newslink September 2021

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High blood pressure can
be a consequence of a
sedentary lifestyle teamed
up with poor diet and lack
of regular exercise
better filters than others (look for cars
with pollen filters), but mostly, if you are
breathing air from the outside, then you
are sitting in a cloud of diesel particulates
and other pollutants that are not good for
you. It’s interesting to wonder if the
current practice of wearing masks on
lessons will see these ill effects reduced;
no study has been produced yet to check
on this.
To minimise the problems, Darren
says, you need to drive in a rural area or
look for better air filters. If only we all could
spend the day cruising the countryside!
Noise
Noise is a particular problem for
motorcyclists and if, as an instructor, you
are using an intercom, then the volume
will need to be sufficient to be heard over
the engine. Many motorbikes are very
loud – loud enough that you can get your
entire days’ worth of noise energy in only
a few hours. A typical motorbike will be
85dBA (A-weighted Decibels) and this is
loud enough to cause hearing loss over
time. The recommended exposure at
85dBA is only eight hours per day.
Increase this by 3dB (which is the
threshold of hearing a change in the
volume for most people) and it halves the
exposure time. Riding that Harley or
sports bike could be damaging your
hearing sooner than you expect. (see
Editor’s note below)
Earplugs while riding will reduce your
noise exposure by 20-30dBA, but they
also reduce your perception of things
around you as they will dull the sound of
other vehicles, sirens, horns and so on.
Would you consider using earplugs
[Editor’s note on noise: the A-weighting
scale is used when measuring sound in
the range 20Hz to 20kHZ. The human
ear is sensitive between 500Hz and
6kHz. The dBA measurements are
used for damage risk measurements.
The sound measurement scale is not
linear but logarithmic. An increase of
3dBA on 85dBA may not seem much
but it is, in fact, a doubling of sound.]
with your students? It’s interesting to
note that during high-speed pursuit
training the police do wear ear defenders,
but not once trained.
Dehydration
It is often difficult to find a public toilet
in the city and as a result some driving
instructors deliberately dehydrate
themselves so that can last through the
day without stopping. Other instructors
aren’t aware of their body’s requirements
for water. If you are thirsty, you are
already dehydrated. Once you get past of
the point of thirst, those feelings can
change to hunger as your body looks for
any way to introduce liquid into its
system. Eat that fat and protein-laden pie
for lunch and you’ll need even more
water to digest it. It’ll also make you feel
lethargic in the afternoon.
Dehydration can cause or contribute to
several physiological symptoms such as
stomach ulcers, low blood sugar,
headaches and bad breath.
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