25 ms·

The cognitive costs of air pollution

• brenden2 7y ago
  This is blogspam. Here's the original post: https://patrickcollison.com/pollution https://patrickcollison.com/pollution
  • wizzwizz4 7y ago
    Should I upvote despite that, or wait for somebody to post the original? I'm not sure of HN's norms here.
    • floatingatoll 7y ago
      You can upvote and also email the mods using the Contact link in the footer; they can swap out links easily.
      • najarvg 7y ago
        Wasn't the original link already posted under - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21560916 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21560916 yesterday?
    • dang 7y ago
      Better not to post the original if there's already an active thread, because that will either have no effect or split the discussion. We usually change URLs in cases like this. Best is to email hn@ycombinator.com because then we're sure to see it.
  • CelestialTeapot 7y ago
    That would be a much better link than the one provided. Wasting energy on the "IQ" issue is not productive to the problem presented: that air pollution does, indeed, cause (hopefully only temporary) cognitive decline. It can be measured on a small scale, for example, see the Allen et al. [1] article showing cognitive decline in an office environment (conventional building vs Green+ building). 1. https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/27662232/4892924.pdf?sequence=1 https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/27662232/4892924...
  • dang 7y ago
    Changed from https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/11/air-pollution-reduces-iq-a-lot.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/11/ai.... Thanks!
• larnmar 7y ago
  If the effect were present, and as large as implied, you’d expect low IQ test results in ultra-polluted Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. And yet... http://www.city-data.com/forum/world/2348902-china-iq-map-provinces-8-10-a.html http://www.city-data.com/forum/world/2348902-china-iq-map-pr...
  • ErikAugust 7y ago
    Pardon my ignorance, but how is this IQ data obtained? It is reported by the government? Are IQ tests standardized?
    • learc83 7y ago
      >IQ tests standardized? IQ tests can't be standardized across cultures. Even something like Raven's Progressive Matrices has a cultural component. https://www.apa.org/monitor/feb03/intelligence https://www.apa.org/monitor/feb03/intelligence Also China has some issues with the way they report scholastic achievement that make their results appear higher than they should. China is very selective about which students take standardized tests that are used for global comparisons--they aren't random samples.
      • kingkawn 7y ago
        Seems hilarious to assume they can be standardized within a culture too, whatever a culture may be.
        • glofish 7y ago
          but that's what IQ test are, standardized tests. not sure where hilarity comes into play ... it has well defined statistical properties perhaps you mean that the results of IQ tests can be, and often are grossly misinterpreted, that is not related to standardization
        • cookiecaper 7y ago
          Yeah, the reality is that you'll never be able to get reliable/unadulterated data on something that is both as personally impactful and as loosely defined as "intelligence". Everyone is going to bias toward interpreting the mode of thought that is most similar to their own as the definition of "intelligent". Very few adults are comfortable with the idea that any substantial group of people are objectively more intelligent than themselves, because admitting that comes uncomfortably close to relinquishing autonomy, at least in contemporary Western understanding that says the more intelligent should rule. European history throughout the 20th century shows the horrifying, depraved danger in capitulating to a ruling intelligentsia. We should earnestly hope that no group allows their self-interest, protected by native instinct, to be overridden by the despotic, unfeeling ideologies of "intelligent" rulership. That philosophy has shown itself over and over again to be a quick route to starvation, genocide, and widespread desolation. Nevertheless, IQ is the most general/objective measurement we have, and it seems to be a reasonably good approximation on aggregate.
• Scene_Cast2 7y ago
  How do you all monitor air quality? I personally have a couple of devices (an Awair and a Flow). They seem to under-report PM2.5 compared to purpleair, airnow, and waqi.
  • spladug 7y ago
    The South Coast (California) Air Quality Management District does some really thorough tests on the quality of the various low-cost sensors: https://www.aqmd.gov/aq-spec/evaluations/summary-pm https://www.aqmd.gov/aq-spec/evaluations/summary-pm
    • PowerfulWizard 7y ago
      Anyone want to review this table and suggest a currently commercially available option in the $300 and lower price range? I may have time this afternoon but if anyone does go thorough it I'm interested to know.
      • bearforcenine 7y ago
        Based on my reading of the table, the PurpleAir II sensors seemed to be the best of the sub $300 for PM1.0 (field R^2 of 0.96 to 0.98) and PM2.5 (field R^2 of 0.93 to 0.97). The PM10 readings were not as good (field R^2 of 0.66 to 0.70). After skimming the rest of the table, it looks like the PurpleAir II sensors might have some of the best field R^2 for PM 2.5 and PM 1.0
        • PowerfulWizard 7y ago
          I agree, looking at devices around the sub-$300 price point that were lab tested, PA-II has good performance and seems to be readily available.
        • gmas 7y ago
          That sensor is also available from Adafruit: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3686 https://www.adafruit.com/product/3686 I got it hooked up to a RaspberryPi that exposes sensor readings in Prometheus format.
• known 7y ago
  Poverty also reduces IQ by 13 points https://archive.is/bmj11 https://archive.is/bmj11
  • larnmar 7y ago
    Has this study been replicated? It seems a lot like one of those terrible “priming” studies that won’t. Statistics aside, the experimental methodology is terrible. You ask a bunch of people to think about being poor, or not, and that’s supposed to be a simulation of being poor or not?
    • 9dl 7y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experimen... > The replication suggested that economic background, rather than willpower, explained the other half Yeah And 250k/y "poor" https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/09/the-self-pity-of-the-harvard-poor/63755/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/09/the-sel... https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/09/in-defense-of-the-self-pitying-wealthy-poor/63777/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/09/in-defe...
• mberning 7y ago
  I'm confused - is IQ a reliable way to measure intelligence between individuals, or is it a culturally biased measure that is scientifically bankrupt? I guess it depends on the context.
  • glofish 7y ago
    whatever skills IQ tests measure these do correlate (and better than other readily measurable predictors) with various long term successes what throws most people off is that the skill that IQ test measure is not a just an innate ability but a learned skill that is in demand and often needed for success in that society
  • deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
• rahuldottech 7y ago
  This really bothers me. I live in a VERY polluted place, and unfortunately moving away won't be an option for me for at least half a decade. What can I do to minimise the health effects of such an atmosphere? I'm planning on getting an indoor air filter for my home.
  • 4ec0755f5522 7y ago
    Find one that can filter nano particles. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191113-the-toxic-killers-in-our-air-too-small-to-see https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191113-the-toxic-killer...
    • carapace 7y ago
      That's brutal! We're poisoning ourselves.
    • cameldrv 7y ago
      Essentially all air filters filter nano particles. https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/can-hepa-filters-capture-nanoparticles/ https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/can-hepa-filters-capture...
      • CarVac 7y ago
        That's specific to HEPA filters. Most air filters are not as capable as HEPA filters.
        • cameldrv 7y ago
          Read the rest of the article. The cheap furnace filter filters nanoparticles too, just not as well. Both larger and smaller particles are pretty easy to filter. It's the ones around 0.3um that are the toughest to filter.
  • graeme 7y ago
    Starts with monitoring. Awair or laseregg are good quality monitors. Then you can assess how well filters work. I think there are masks you can use outside too. You can also check which times of day/days are worst. And which streets. You can carry the laseregg around for local measures.
• mattjaynes 7y ago
  David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH of Rails fame) gave a great talk on this recently, though he focused more on indoor air quality and its cognitive impact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRqh8oLY7Ik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRqh8oLY7Ik
  • hinkley 7y ago
    My takeaway from this: If you live in new construction (owner, or renter), buy new furniture in the spring/fall when you can leave the windows open. Same for paint.
• calibas 7y ago
  I highly suspect toluene has something to do with it, seeing as how it's a potent neurotoxin and a byproduct of burning fossil fuels.
• pkaye 7y ago
  I thought IQ was not a reliable measure of anything?
  • ytNumbers 7y ago
    I wouldn't call IQ a completely useless yardstick. Likely through examining all of the evidence regarding IQ and military performance, the United States government has come to the conclusion that an IQ below a certain level disqualifies the person for military service. Unsurprisingly, US law is a bit complicated on this, but to summarize, it implies that an IQ below 81 (“tenth percentile”) is disqualifying, and dictates that persons with IQ's between 81 and 93 (“thirty-first percentile”) cannot comprise more than 20% of all enlistees.
  • mrandish 7y ago
    It depends on how one defines intelligence and what specific things are considered material to the measurement. IQ tests measure the things that IQ tests measure. The challenge is that the things we often want to determine in trying to assess "intelligence" are multi-dimensional, multi-variate and have complex interactions. Personally, I consider most typical assessments of a person's general "smartness" to approach zero utility.
• pmart123 7y ago
  Reading his bullet points, I am not sure why the correlation between daily stock market returns and air quality supports the argument that air pollution reduces IQ.
  • PeterisP 7y ago
    One hypothesis is that part of the short-term stock movements is causing about publicly visible stupid acts, causing either physical or PR disasters of various sizes. That would imply some correlation, but a relatively small one.
    • pmart123 7y ago
      Many if not most trading decisions are not executed from a NYC office. The exchange servers aren’t in NYC either, but like that matters.
• bryanmgreen 7y ago
  I wish the argument against pollution would be the simplest one. Go to a massively unpopulated area and just breath. Feel the difference? Isn't it intoxicating? Who gives a crap if umpires make worse calls? Just fight pollution because it's obvious pollution is bad for humans and the planet. Normally I'm all for extra evidence, but in a situation like this come on. It's basically like immaterial evidence against genocide by saying, I don't know, saying the increased production of bullets to commit genocide reduces national science and health budgets by 12% (fake stat just for context). Who cares! It's just plain bad. /rant (ps - rant isn't against the article, but a broader frustration about the topic)
  • dmos62 7y ago
    I like thinking of it as waste, as opposed to bad. Good-bad is the moral realm. Waste is the realm of practicality. The danger is in causing defensiveness, due to judgment, in people whose open-mindedness would be beneficial. I'm not being apologetic of anyone. It's just that this doesn't have to happen through a dramatic conflict of good v. evil (which probably wouldn't work anyway); there are much better alternatives. I agree with everything you said. Just wanted to stack my rant on yours there.
    • licebmi__at__ 7y ago
      I would like to agree with you as I also think trying to find a pragmatic solution is easier than thinking in abstract terms like good/bad, but ultimately waste just takes us to questions about what is being wasted, and wasteful to who. It's a no brainer than relocating to somewhere to avoid emissions can be seen as wasteful for some industries. Besides, framing waste in purely monetary terms, just means that we need to balance the equation for profit, not to what is best for people. The question of alignment between profit and human welfare is still am ethical one. You haven't reduced the complexity, just hidden it behind the facade of taking "pragmatic economic decisions".
      • dmos62 7y ago
        I'd argue that talking about waste exposes the complexity (reality in simpler terms), while ethics or morals obscure it. When I say waste, I mean the waste in the widest sense: potential, future, life, etc. For what it's worth, since you mention it, I don't think that capitalism isn't compatible with an ecological society. It's just that if you're gonna replace all values with a price tag, you have to be accurate with your pricing. For example, the price of diesel has to reflect, among other things, the full effect on the environment.
• rbavocadotree 7y ago
  From the original source: > Stock market returns are lower on polluted days. I don't want to dismiss the entire article, but I think this points to possibility that there is some bad statistics going on here. I don't see how daily stock returns are proof of, or even related to, cognitive ability on a daily basis. This is exactly the type of finding you'd expect with p-hacking.
  • lazyjones 7y ago
    This is probably just a coincidence. Stock markets perform lower on Mondays: https://www.macroption.com/stock-market-performance-volatility-day-of-week-1307/ https://www.macroption.com/stock-market-performance-volatili... Traffic is probably generally higher on Mondays, though I have only anecdotal evidence.
    • ajross 7y ago
      Heh, a rare example of the "proof of correlation isn't proof of the absence of causation" fallacy. No reason that stock markets couldn't perform worse on Mondays because of the extra traffic pollution.
      • jjeaff 7y ago
        But it's not like companies provide daily sales performance data to trade on. Markets move on speculation. They aren't actually pegged to company performance. How would lower cognitive ability make markets move lower on a daily basis? All I can think is higher pollution creating greater pessimism among traders.
        • ajross 7y ago
          Markets aren't perfectly efficient. Some trades are dumb. People with lower cognitive ability are more likely to place an order and forget to check fundamentals first, forget to check competitor data, or quiet frankly make whopper mistakes like confusing a ticker symbol. Think of the loons you see on /r/wallstreetbets and other spots. They live on a spectrum, and all of us have bad days. People with impaired cognitive ability are more likely to make dumb mistakes. That seems pretty obvious to me. The only question is whether or not the effect is large enough to measure using a coarse statistic like this, but that's a quantitative argument.
• PeterStuer 7y ago
  So does this mean we can now expect populist politicians to crank up PM2.5 emitters at a massive scale prior to elections?
  • WhompingWindows 7y ago
    You mean diesel engines? They're trying that in France.
    • SuperFerret 7y ago
      Rural America says Hi!
  • dredmorbius 7y ago
    Rolling coal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal
  • hombre_fatal 7y ago
    No need. Some people gleefully accept and partake in air pollution. Out in the countryside where my parents live in Texas, people are even proud that they burn their trash as if they're sticking it to some sort of treehugger group rather than to the inner lining of their (and all their neighbors' and loved ones') lungs.
• olivermarks 7y ago
  So logically living and working in the countryside is optimum for your IQ rather than polluted cities and areas?
  • electricslpnsld 7y ago
    The countryside can have some bad environmental problems too (expansion of fracking in the rural Midwest of America, etc).
    • javagram 7y ago
      Does fracking cause much air pollution of the type discussed in the article? I thought the main issue was groundwater and earth quakes , and methane gas release / flaring. Plus there are many countryside areas with no oil.
      • Scipio_Afri 7y ago
        Well to their point, there is more wood, brush or other similar types of burning in rural areas. Especially wood in the US as it is the source of heating homes in rural areas. Bonfires, etc are also more likely. Whether or not that translates into more risk for your exposure to small particles is probably related to where you are (e.g. are you inside the house while the wood is burning, probably, so you are close to the source of it and probably have a lot of small particles around your house that get brought in every-time you open the door). If its so rural that its just you for some distance then this might offset the fact that your wood burning stove is (probably) not providing any sort of filtering that a catalytic converter, control systems to more fully burn the fuel (so there aren't as many byproducts), or other devices normally used to remove byproducts of combustion. So it comes down to which of those byproducts are most toxic to you comparatively to other forms of pollution, the density of those particles and where you are in relation to them is going to determine your daily exposure in your environment.
        • olivermarks 7y ago
          Wondering where the optimum place for humans to live is, assuming around healthy agricultural practices (away from BigAg) without to much wood smoke pollution
• LessDmesg 7y ago
  Pollution, IQ, who cares?!? We've got carbon dioxide to fight, a benign gas that for some reason we believe is the root of all evil! Climate change is the most important issue of our time, not pollution (which is actually real and not forged by IPCC, but who cares about reality when there is Greta Thunberg)
• dang 7y ago
  Url changed from https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/11/air-pollution-reduces-iq-a-lot.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/11/ai..., which points to this.
  • ng12 7y ago
    Things like this make it really hard to follow a discussion as it evolves over time.
    • dang 7y ago
      Yes, there's some churn, though we do what we can to minimize it, e.g. posting the URL change in the thread. But the benefit of switching to original or better sources is greater than the cost of the churn. Discussions gradually become higher-quality. Also, not switching to original sources also creates noise in the threads, e.g. complaints about blogspam.
• acd 7y ago
  Most small particles are bad for health. Small particle emissions can be anything, diesel cars emissions, stone dust and flour from bakeries. All small particles are bad for the lungs. Long term exposure of air pollution will lead to health problems.
  • geomark 7y ago
    Although all small particles are bad for the lungs, there must be a difference in their effects on brain and organs, depending on what those small particles are made of since PM 2.5 particles pass through lung lining and into the blood to be distributed around the body.
• igor47 7y ago
  Plug: if you care about this topic and are interested in working on this problem, we're hiring at Aclima. We've got contracts with the major air quality regulators in California, and are looking to scale. Ping me at igor@aclima.io
  • maelito 7y ago
    Do you work with https://plumelabs.com https://plumelabs.com ?
• no5757 7y ago
  Ok Boomer
• thedudeabides5 7y ago
  Anyone seen analysis or similar data for noise pollution?
  • yagurastation 7y ago
    This open source air quality citizen *science project now also has noise sensors going: https://luftdaten.info/laermsensor-bauen/ https://luftdaten.info/laermsensor-bauen/
• QuanticSausage 7y ago
  I don't know you, but in every lecture in college that was done in a room with no air flow, I got distracted every five minutes or so. If the proportion of C02 had a cognitive effect that I could feel, then I wouldn't be surprised if other kinds of contaminants do the same.
  • ketzo 7y ago
    Can’t find a source, but there’s a similar thing with long meetings — after two hours in a conference room, you’ve added enough CO2 to affect cognitive function.
    • lekanwang 7y ago
      I think you may be referring to this publication: https://energyanalysis.lbl.gov/publications/co2-indoor-pollutant-higher-levels https://energyanalysis.lbl.gov/publications/co2-indoor-pollu...
• mc3 7y ago
  Sydney is having a bad day :-( https://aqicn.org/city/sydney/ https://aqicn.org/city/sydney/
  • seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    We would call 159 a clean air day in Beijing. Forest and bush fires suck. Even Seattle air can smell bad when the wind blows in smoke from a big forest fire up in BC.
    • mc3 7y ago
      Sydney radio loves comparing it to Beijing. Then reminding us that we've just got that for a day.
• digitalsushi 7y ago
  short of plants, i want to find a device i can put in my area that reduces the co2 in the air. (my space doesn't support plants, it's too cold).
  • dheelus 7y ago
    There's a decent amount of research that indicates that indoor air quality doesn't significantly improve with indoor plants. https://time.com/5105027/indoor-plants-air-quality/ https://time.com/5105027/indoor-plants-air-quality/
  • cwkoss 7y ago
    Most CO2 scrubbing systems either use plants (sometimes algae) or expend chemical ingredients (not very practical for long term daily use). Id recommend looking at systems designed for survivalist bunkers. I did find this interesting project for using a thermosiphon to separate CO2 from air which looks pretty cool, but would likely require a good bit of sun to work well. I imagine it could work with an electric heating element instead of the sun, however. https://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-powered-CO2-Scrubber/ https://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-powered-CO2-Scrubber/
  • driverdan 7y ago
    You want heat recovery ventilation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_recovery_ventilation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_recovery_ventilation
• yagurastation 7y ago
  Anyone interested should also check out the open source citizen science project https://luftdaten.info/en/ https://luftdaten.info/en/ Build your own inexpensive sensor, contribute to the global network. See also https://github.com/opendata-stuttgart https://github.com/opendata-stuttgart
  • simonebrunozzi 7y ago
    For people living in the US like me, this is where you find US pollution maps: https://usa.maps.luftdaten.info/ https://usa.maps.luftdaten.info/
    • umvi 7y ago
      Holy cow, that must be a German project; Germany has nearly 100% coverage, the USA has almost none. I was expecting China and India to be dark purple
      • novok 7y ago
        If you want a more international / american version, check out purple air: https://www2.purpleair.com/ https://www2.purpleair.com/
        • baroffoos 7y ago
          Is purple air the proprietary version?
          • novok 7y ago
            No it's another independent community effort, go read it's about page.
  • Psychlist 7y ago
    It frustrates me that there are so many of these networks and they don't talk to each other. I deliberately went with a system that measures multiple values, but then I see other people going "we only measure one thing instead of nine so our units cost half as much". I should try to script at least my systems so they write into as many of the open networks as I can manage. https://www.uradmonitor.com/ https://www.uradmonitor.com/
• gridlockd 7y ago
  All of these publications are junk science, nothing but spurious correlations, using the nonsensical linear no-threshold model. (waiting for the internet to correct me so I don't have to do any research myself)
• JesseAldridge 7y ago
  Here's a map of PM2.5 levels in San Francisco for those interested: https://hoodline.com/2015/04/should-you-be-worried-about-air-pollution-in-your-neighborhood https://hoodline.com/2015/04/should-you-be-worried-about-air...
• WalterBright 7y ago
  > "Exposure to CO2 and VOCs at levels found in conventional office buildings was associated with lower cognitive scores than those associated with levels of these compounds found in a Green building." – Allen et al 2016. The effect seems to kick in at around 1,000 ppm of CO2. The last time this came up I bought a CO2 meter for my office. I was quite surprised how often it went over 1,000. Outside air runs around 450. I increased the duty cycle of the house fan, and open a window when it reaches 800. Right now I'm at 505. Buying the meter was a really good investment.
  • popotamonga 7y ago
    Where please? What model.
    • en-us 7y ago
      I'm not the OP, but I use this one with similar results: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01FYWU2IS https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01FYWU2IS One of these days I'm going to have to rig up something to start the house fan when the CO2 goes above 800 ppm and I think you'd need a different sensor with a realtime output port for something like that.
      • bumby 7y ago
        If you want a reference on setting this up to meet industry standards on demand controlled ventilation practices see ASHRAE 62.1 and 62.2 standards
      • ip26 7y ago
        Direct feedback is cool, but a simple schedule is really easy & reliable. Even occupancy detection isn't all that critical- nobody wants to come home to a stuffy house, and most people's schedules are very predictable. These days IoT is so widespread that something like a $25 WeMo smart outlet is hard to beat. Hard wired is "best" but a million times more hassle and more expensive.
    • WalterBright 7y ago
• sebow 7y ago
  This year i went to my relatives who live in the mountains.As soon as i arrived there, my sense of smell "magically" came back, i felt like my body wanted to nap every couple of hours(even though i didn't want to,most probably due to the higher levels of oxygen) and my circadian cycle was almost perfect(which in the city even while wanting to maintain it,i couldn't, this is not because i was busy or free in the city). And most importantly: ideas,motivation came to me,"90% of my brain" was suddenly activated. Obviously this must be again due to the fact that the air was cleaner and i got more oxygenated. As soon as i arrived back in the city, motivated to do my work, my brain slowly decayed back into the dumbness that every city shines on you.I felt like with every breath i was losing track of time and slowing down into monotony. Obviously there is bias & other psychological effects at play, but the quality of air(besides water) should be the upmost priority in a person's life. This is very much true and common sense as people should recognize how their environments affects them.Our daily constraints often make us not be aware of our bodies and trap us in our heads, which is very dangerous.
• 734129837261 7y ago
  From Western Europe I moved to Mexico City. I work and live here now, and this city suffers intense amounts of pollution almost every day. When you take an Uber somewhere they all drive with their windows open (airco's are expensive to run) and you get the full blast of diesel trucks and older cars' fumes. I came here for a girl. I'm leaving because of pollution. The city is amazing in its own right, but I feel like I'm breathing lung cancer.
  • zachkatz 7y ago
    Damn, I’m about to go to Mexico City—was planning to stay for a few months, but I hate dirty air. Is it like that all over the city, or just certain parts?
    • stevenwoo 7y ago
      I stayed for a week for work ( lot of traffic that seemed typical after walking around, San Miguel Chapultepec, Mexico City, Federal District) in mornings when I awoke and blew my nose into paper tissue it was dark with the dirt? filtered by I guess my nose/respiratory system. This has never happened to me in Northern California or living near downtown Houston/Austin, Texas.
      • fyfy18 7y ago
        That happens to me when I was living in London too.
    • frandroid 7y ago
      Mexico City sits in a former volcano, so the air pollution of one of the world's largest metropolitan areas is trapped in there.
      • lobo_tuerto 7y ago
        It's a valley, not a volcano.
    • 7y ago
• robbiep 7y ago
  I don’t believe the nature study results presented there. The MMSE is such a basic test that it is almost impossible to score less than full marks unless you are cognitively impaired. I’ve run through it hundreds of times with patients. The other tests are more cognitively demanding. Looking at the Table 1 of that nature study, there appears as if there would be a significant difference in the distribution of ages - couple extra older people in one of the study groups. I think this is a false positive result
• ghufran_syed 7y ago
  I think this is an important question to answer, but the shehab paper (the first link) provides vertically no useful information. They didn't blind the assessors carrying out the cognitive studies, which on its own invalidates their conclusion. They also didn't randomize the ordering, but appear to have "investigated for order effects", found "no statistically robust difference", then proceeded to have every participant do the "post exposure" test second, making it highly likely that fatigue alone could explain their effects. With only 30 subjects, their tests for ordering effects are likely underpowered. Also note that they did 11 different tests, but didn't appear to correct for multiple comparisons [1] This would be a really interesting problem to study, but you'd probably want to look at academic performance in college students before and after transfer between universities e.g urban vs rural (presuming you can measure differences in pollution) between the two, you'd expect to see a relative drop in academic performance going from rural to urban, now that would worry me. But this study is unhelpful. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_comparisons_problem https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_comparisons_problem
  • radium3d 7y ago
    If the effects are permanent then your results would be inconclusive if studying the same people transferring between polluted and non polluted universities.
  • pliny 7y ago
    Just want to say it's impossible to tell which paper you're referring to. The first link on the page isn't a paper. The word shehab doesn't appear anywhere on the page. The word shehab doesn't appear anywhere in the first paper linked. The three quoted sentences / fragments you provide don't appear anywhere in the first paper linked. I opened some of the papers and didn't see any with n=30.
    • vonmoltke 7y ago
      Patrick quietly dropped the entire first paragraph in the examples list a few hours ago: https://web.archive.org/web/diff/20191118190006/20191119053006/https://patrickcollison.com/pollution https://web.archive.org/web/diff/20191118190006/201911190530...
• brentis 7y ago
  Wut?
• jdkee 7y ago
  It has real physical health consequences as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London?wprov=sfti1 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London?wprov=s...
• beilabs 7y ago
  This is fantastic stuff. Some personal anecdotes, moving from Ireland to a heavily industrialized city in Northern China definitely felt like a kick to the head to my output. I've felt similar effects since moving from Sydney to Kathmandu. Looking forward to my eventual move back to Ireland in the coming years not only for my own health but for that of my children. Unfortunately Kathmandu is going down the path of major Indian cities; there are improvements but the lack of oversight on construction / dust as well as older vehicles with poor fuel makes for a lethal combination causing a dust bowl effect.
• sn41 7y ago
  I live in Northern India. On occasions when I visit cleaner countries like NZ, Singapore etc. my productivity goes up. I thought this was because my colleagues were absent. Maybe PM 2.5 is also to blame!!
• ngeoozz 7y ago
  I just read the contamination levels of the River where I live next by (8º worst polluted place in the world). Always <25.0 µg PM 2.5 and 55 µg PM 2.5 in a lot of cases. This is highly depressing tbh.
• simonebrunozzi 7y ago
  I am looking for a very precise sensor to install at home. Any has experiences with these (no affiliation whatsoever)? https://www2.purpleair.com/collections/air-quality-sensors https://www2.purpleair.com/collections/air-quality-sensors
• w1nst0nsm1th 7y ago
  The study didn't show any example of possible influence regarding violent behaviors. I read some times ago widespread violence in america in the second half of the 20th century, especially in the 80', were related to lead poisonning due to car exhaustion and water contamination through public lead plumbery.
• amaurymartiny 7y ago
  There's a study[1] by Richard Muller from Berkeley Earth that proposes an equivalence between air pollution and daily cigarettes smoked. He uses the number of deaths caused by these 2 factors as a common denominator to calculate the equivalence. I believe cognitive cost would also be a good denominator. Something like "we find that an increase of 10 µg/m³ raises the probability of a chess player making an error by 1.5 percentage points. The same 1.5 percentage points would be caused by smoking 2 cigarettes per day." Plug: I'm the author of an open-source mobile app[2] which does this pollution-cigarettes conversion. I think cigarettes gives a strong image of air quality for those who are unfamiliar with AQI. [1]: http://berkeleyearth.org/air-pollution-and-cigarette-equivalence/ http://berkeleyearth.org/air-pollution-and-cigarette-equival... [2]: https://shootismoke.github.io/ https://shootismoke.github.io/
• gkochlam 7y ago
  cosmohandmade.etsy.com
• gkochlam 7y ago
  Cosmohandmade.etsy.com
• gkochlam 7y ago
  www.etsy.com/shop/cosmohandmade
• philshem 7y ago
  Recent Radiolab podcast talks about the one and maybe only benefit of IQ testing is geographic screening of toxins. For example, lead paints and lead as a fuel additive cause over a large sample a cumulative drop in IQ of 4 points. The statistics actually were the way this negative health effect was discovered in 1979. Testing for lead in the body that has replaced calcium isn't otherwise easy test (requires bone sample, or cleverly, kids' baby teeth). https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/g-problem-space https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/g-pro...
• tomaskafka 7y ago
  I have done some research into a budget home CO2/PM2.5/VOC sensor, and if you don't mind sending data to China, Cleargrass Air has awesome functionality in a nice design (plus mobile app) for about $130 https://www.google.com/search?q=cleargrass+air&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-cz&client=safari https://www.google.com/search?q=cleargrass+air&ie=UTF-8&oe=U...
• ultrasounder 7y ago
  Wow!. I just browsed through Patrick's reading list. NO wonder people who actively follow him and know-him personally call him the "Most erudite Man" of our times. Kinda like Umberto Eco from Black Swan.
• Wegiangb 7y ago
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-50467700 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-50467700