The headline on the BBC News website "'London throat': Toxic brake dust could cause condition, scientists say" reveals this is just another 'scare' story that the media loves to put out there when some university has done a 'study'. The word 'could' is the give-away. One 'could' have a condition caused by a myriad of things. I'm not going to lose sleep over it.The brake dust from cars does not contain asbestos, which would be of concern, and hasn't for several decades. There's always been this issue on the tube and I certainly was fully aware of it in the eighties so this is hardly hot news. The black lining of the tunnels is evidence of years of exposure to it. Those who might be worried about this dust probably won't be happy to learn that the tunnels are also full of human skin particles, which we no doubt can't avoid but breath in, and are regularly cleaned by people called 'fluffers' who walk the tunnels with brushes clearing all the human hair that floats through with the pressure of the trains passing along the tubes.I cant help thinking that if it was so dangerous out there there'd be nobody alive over the age of 40 in London and therefore none of us old fogie's here to contribute in this forum. There's a silver lining to every cloud I suppose ;-)
Freddie Francis ● 2497d