For ages I have been suffering from the thick gunky air of London. Those that have probably never been to parts of Scandinavia and Switzerland think the air is normal and totally accept it.
Pollution is ‘supposedly low’ on some days, but this is just to please business so they can carry on polluting as normal, and only get caught if it is ‘too much’. ‘Low’ isn’t low enough!
Anyway, I had an anti-pollution mask, you know, one of those expensive ones which I bought online, but they looked so ugly like you’re on CSI investigating a murder so I never even wore it.
(brief interlude: shouty, screaming kids out side. ‘Shut the F up’ I say to myself)
Anyway, the air was pretty bad again by London Bridge the other day, so I bought myself another anti pollution mask on Amazon, and AT LAST, it is easy to get attractive (for good reasons) pollution masks now -not ‘anti pollution apparatus’. Yahoo!
Vogmasks are made out of light microfibre are easily washable. (I am going to try mine out soon, and if I need to get an extra filter, will get one. )
They are easy to put on, funky, urban, contemporary and great for women cyclists. Imagine a cool pollution mask, Vogmask has really got them! They also stop you eating flies too, another bonus, particularly for vegetarians. I look forward to seeing what other designs they have too.
I would add that Vogmask do some for men too, and none of them are as horrible looking as the ones in cycle shops. Check them out on Facebook.
They are £14.99 but not as much as the ugly male orientated ones you get in cycling shops at £30. I am not sure how good they are scientifically, but I think that if they can at least stop some of the London dirt being chucked down your lungs, than can be a good thing.
The cycling industry are slowly realising women are cyclists and now have better cycling clothes and better looking bicycles etc. (The helmets are still naff for women and I have not had a single compliment for my cycling shop bought helmet, but I have, when I spraypainted it the colour of my choice – a cool plain metallic colour).
But the cycling industry, mostly male it appears, either doesn’t sell any pollution masks in their shops (despite the public’s pollution awareness) or sells only ugly masks for men, if they ever do.
I have always known we can get more attractive anti pollution masks but I often found them hard to get even online as some were from from China, and probably had high postage costs.
However, I was really pleased that Vogmask, a right on Californian company, sells really nice ones. (I would have thought the environmentally aware Germans would have got there first). I would add that I didn’t get one free from Vogmask so I don’t have to write any silly fake crap to promote their business.
Let’s hope cycling shops can actually improve their selection of anti-pollution masks so that women, who want to be healthy and cycle in highly polluted areas can enjoy wearing them, and stop breathing so much traffic fumes. Hopefully mothers will also give them to their children to wear too when they’re out cycling.
Let’s hope we can set a fashion trend for Vogmask pollution mask in the UK!
Velochick of South of the River 