I’ve noticed something strange every time I go on a long road trip, or am spending a lot of time in the car in the summer.
Usually it happens when I’m travelling back and forth from the city visiting friends, and sitting in the car for about 3 hours at a time in order to do so; I return home at the end of the weekend and I’m immediately sick.
It was a mystery for a while, but I now I think it’s my air conditioning to blame. I wake up the next day to find that I have a sore throat and horrible sinus congestion. I thought it was allergies, or perhaps the air vents in my old car contained something irritating to my mucous membranes, but as time goes on I’m convinced that being in the direct line of AC for hours at a time is what affects me. I’ve gotten more evidence, as my boyfriend has recently experienced the same thing following a long car ride with the AC blasting the whole way. I was smart enough to turn my air vents off, or direct them away from my face, but he took the air conditioning on full force. The next morning, he woke up so congested and constantly coughing; he’s never sick, so I’m certain that it was the car’s AC that caused his ailments. It’s too late to help him now, but at least he’ll be somewhat aware of the pending dangers of using high powered air conditioning settings in the car for future use.