Eli5: We all known gasoline fumes are bad for us, are we exposed to them when we go outside for a walk? If so, how have a lot of people not fallen ill?
In: Biology
Acutely it doesn’t kill you / make you ill because the concentration isn’t strong enough. This is why turning on your car inside of a closed garage *will* kill you after a bit of time (p.s. don’t do this).
Chronically it definitely does affect your lungs, but unless you’re chillin by a highway all day long or you have other lung diseases, it likely will not make a meaningful difference in your lung function.
To address the other side of your question, the amount of gasoline fumes which are released by cars is extremely small for several reasons. First off, any gasoline fumes coming out of a car represent a waste of fuel. Car manufacturers are always trying to maximize fuel efficiency, so they engineer the engines and fuel systems of cars to burn as much of the gas as possible in a way that helps actually propel the car. Secondly, because it’s well recognized that gasoline fumes and other unburned products found in the exhaust of an engine are toxic and highly polluting, cars are built with a part called a catalytic converter which provides a second chance for any toxic emissions to be converted into less toxic compounds like water and CO2
The basis of toxicology is “**The dose makes the poison** “. You can loosely say that toxicology is the study of poison on humans.
So gasoline fumes above some limit might be bad for use but if the level is low it can have no or very little effect
Oxygen is required for us to live but if you breathe in 100% oxygen all the time it will damage you. It will cause permanent damage and will kill you.
Formaldehyde is another chemical. A high level is bad for you in many ways including killing you. But everyone has a low level in our blood because it is produced in our metabolism the food we eat.
Something can be very bad even if the exposure is at a low level but for a long time like mercury because you have problems expelling it from your body.
But that is not the case of most stuff.
So how and if gasoline fumes id bad for you depend on the concentration of them. The amount that you are exposed to outdoor is very low so no or very low effect.
I’ll use an example of gas chambers. People died in them because hydrocyanide was produced. However, when ventilated, the chambers and the areas around them were safe.
When you’re outside, you are in the most ventilated place possible
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