Thursday, October 25, 2007

A breath of fresh air

Among all the astonishingly vicious & vitriolic comments on different methods of 'bringing up baby' have been some genuinely puzzled-sounding comments about the once common practice of putting babies out to sleep in the garden during the day - in a big old-fashioned pram.

Why did they need fresh air?

Well I guess the puzzlement marks the final end of the miasma theory of disease

In fact fresh air is notably un-green now, for people used to double glazed sealed unit windows, keeping your doors closed & working in temperature controlled energy-efficient offices

The thing that seriously alarms me though - has done for 30 years since I first thought about it - is that when a baby is finally taken out of the house or car, people are quite happy to wheel them along the pavement beside a busy road. In a buggy. Perfectly placed for maximum exposure to vehicular exhausts

Why not just put a rubber mask & hose over their little faces

At least exhaust pipes usually point straight back now, rather than being angled towards the kerb