4 ms·

Air pollution is a big deal

62 points by MarkMc 7y ago

nl 7y ago
This is pretty interesting, since the effect is so big. I did a bit of reading and it looks like the best thing to do is to run an indoor air filter and have indoor plants that are effective at absorbing CO2 with indoor lighting[1] (not all are!). Unfortunately recent research indicates plants aren't great at removing general particle pollution though. [1] https://www.matec-conferences.org/articles/matecconf/pdf/2017/17/matecconf_iscee2017_05004.pdf https://www.matec-conferences.org/articles/matecconf/pdf/201...
- supercanuck 7y ago
  What plants are effective at absorbing CO2?
  - nl 7y ago
    The linked paper has some. The top one they tested was the prayer plant, which lowers CO2 by 7% in 7 hours in 300 lux.
  - steve1977 7y ago
    And especially, which ones are effective under real life conditions, not only in lab (where they are kept in an airtight box maybe).
mhishambr 7y ago
We have to do something on this big issue.
bjourne 7y ago
It is insane how we (as a society) have been so blind on this issue. In many countries, people have been debating why crime rates rose sharply from the 60's to the 90's. The explanation may have been simply that airborne lead particles caused brain damage in kids. In the 80's and 90'l leaded gasoline was phased out in most of the Western world so there is a clear temporal correlation between the crime wave and lead particles. An euphemism for brain damage is "cognitive defects" but it is of course the same thing. Now imagine someone caused brain damage to your children (for example by causing a head trauma), would you be ok with that? Probably not. Not even a very small brain injury would be ok, but millions of cars doing the exact same thing, no problem!
- postpawl 7y ago
  Lead is still used in light aircraft fuel in the US: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas The FAA says “more than 167,000 piston-engine aircraft operating in the United States rely on aviation gasoline (avgas)“: https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/avgas/ https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/avgas/

62 points by MarkMc 7y ago

nl 7y ago

This is pretty interesting, since the effect is so big. I did a bit of reading and it looks like the best thing to do is to run an indoor air filter and have indoor plants that are effective at absorbing CO2 with indoor lighting[1] (not all are!). Unfortunately recent research indicates plants aren't great at removing general particle pollution though. [1] https://www.matec-conferences.org/articles/matecconf/pdf/2017/17/matecconf_iscee2017_05004.pdf https://www.matec-conferences.org/articles/matecconf/pdf/201...

supercanuck 7y ago
What plants are effective at absorbing CO2?
- nl 7y ago
  The linked paper has some. The top one they tested was the prayer plant, which lowers CO2 by 7% in 7 hours in 300 lux.
- steve1977 7y ago
  And especially, which ones are effective under real life conditions, not only in lab (where they are kept in an airtight box maybe).

mhishambr 7y ago

We have to do something on this big issue.

bjourne 7y ago

It is insane how we (as a society) have been so blind on this issue. In many countries, people have been debating why crime rates rose sharply from the 60's to the 90's. The explanation may have been simply that airborne lead particles caused brain damage in kids. In the 80's and 90'l leaded gasoline was phased out in most of the Western world so there is a clear temporal correlation between the crime wave and lead particles. An euphemism for brain damage is "cognitive defects" but it is of course the same thing. Now imagine someone caused brain damage to your children (for example by causing a head trauma), would you be ok with that? Probably not. Not even a very small brain injury would be ok, but millions of cars doing the exact same thing, no problem!

postpawl 7y ago
Lead is still used in light aircraft fuel in the US: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas The FAA says “more than 167,000 piston-engine aircraft operating in the United States rely on aviation gasoline (avgas)“: https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/avgas/ https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/avgas/