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New Deadly Cycling Hazard

May 16, 2010
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A more esoteric way motorists can kill you.

Perhaps I'm the only cyclist who's received a shower courtesy of drivers deploying their windscreen washers.

Surely it happens a lot to urban pedalists?

I cycle in the tropics, so until now I've been grateful for a cooling shower, but not any longer.

Scientists have discovered a common source of the causative organism of "Legionnaires disease" is car driver's screen-wash bottles. It is thought to be causing up to 20% of cases of the dreaded disease.

"Windscreen water infection risk"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/10293519.stm

The bug grows best in warm moist incubators like; shower-heads, air conditioning units, sweaty Foreign Legion dormitories, and under car bonnets.

Researchers found drivers who failed to add detergent to their screen-wash, and drove with their windows ajar, had a significantly higher incidence of the often fatal disease.

England's most famous cricket scorer ("The Bearded Wonder") died last year from the bug, which he caught by simply breathing infected conditioned air in a Middle Eastern hotel.

So add a face-mask to your; body-armour, gauntlets, and helmet.
 
Aug 4, 2009
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Wont bother me down here on Victoria the water in windscreen bottles are frozen.

Most car windscreen wash has chlorine in it of some sort but some just use water
 
A

Anonymous

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my grandpa told me, "You can't get out of this world alive."
But thanks for the heads up, I'll avoid "window washer" spray whenever I'm in Wales... Cornwall too!