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Q: Should you keep wearing a face mask when on the Beijing subway?
Is it okay to take off your face mask when riding the Beijing subway or are the pollution levels really bad on platforms and in carriages too? Do you keep your mask on on subways?
11 years 12 weeks ago in Health & Safety - Beijing
I'd rather change the city I live in, than keep thinking about dirt!
Butt,.... there is another side of this coin too:
'You got to die of something...' Sean Connery in Untouchables
This is a tricky question. I try to keep it on just to avoid catching a cold from the hoards of people coughing all over the place (don't know about pollution). However, it gets insanely hot on the subway, and the last thing you want to be doing is standing like sardines in full winterwear with a facemask on, so I usually end up taking it off, flu season be damned.
I'd keep it on. Who knows when, if ever, the air gets ventilated down there. The subway's a massive incubator for germs and bacteria as well.
as peter said be more worried about catching the cold in the subway then the pollution.
Best to be safe and keep it on, not just to help keep flu and cold germs at bay, and not just for bad air ventilation, but to help minimize body odors as well. How do you best describe the smell of a packed Guamao subway car at 6pm?
A surgical mask will help you from airborne bacteria particulates etc but will not help with photochemical smog. You would need a gas mask for smog. Franck3
