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> I noticed a substantial improvement in my health when I started putting HEPA air filters all over my house, and another jump when I moved away from a major ro
by Nacdor 6y ago
> I noticed a substantial improvement in my health when I started putting HEPA air filters all over my house, and another jump when I moved away from a major road.
Same for me when I moved out of a stuffy old high-rise in Philadelphia. I had frequent coughs and wheezing, shortness of breath, and just lots of general discomfort with breathing. Every time I washed my car there was a thick black layer of soot covering it within a couple days, so I'm sure that was doing great things for my lungs. Also got a couple serious colds every year when I lived there. That was as a 20-something who never smoked, didn't have asthma and wasn't overweight.
Living in the suburbs now and haven't had an issue since moving.
- kaitai 6y agoAir quality and health are quite significant in predicting COVID mortality on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis, too. Environmental air quality -- socioeconomic status -- health outcomes (and more) are tied in a very complex network with a lot of reinforcing cycles. I don't know what the distribution of stove type by income level is, but I do have the impression that richer Americans are more likely to have fancy induction ranges, and poorer Americans are more likely to use gas. Annoying as I certainly find gas more pleasant to cook with.
- supertrope 6y agoWhen I think of a cheap apartment I imagine a stove with electric resistive coils.
- phil21 6y agoIndeed. The only rentals with gas stoves are either the high-end market, or legacy housing stock probably 50+ years old. Any lower/middle class oriented apartments I've seen built in the past 30 years in my area at least have all been electric. Also spent a lot of my 20's in cheap apartments, and never had anything more than an electric coil stove.
- jdhn 6y ago>legacy housing stock probably 50+ years old My first apartment out of college was an absolute trash heap. I lived in a studio, which had clearly at one point been a 1 br until someone put a wall in the middle of it to create 2 studios. Only two positive aspects about that place was the fact that it had a brand new gas stove, and that whoever had put up the wall failed to create a new electric circut for the studio, so my neighbor paid my electric bill for the year I was there :)
- rootsudo 6y agoI'd say also geographic. Japan/Philippines have gas stoves vs electric simply because it is cheaper, reliable and not every house in the Philippines has electricity... Ye olde grand cities new stock of apartments has gas, so Chicago, NYC, simply because it's already wired and can be cheaper than electricity in winter.
- craftkiller 6y agoWhen I think of a fancy kitchen I think of an induction stove. It puts the least heat into the air since it heats the pan directly, its incredibly easy to clean because its a flat surface, it looks great because it can blend into the counter, and its absolutely the fastest way to boil a pot of water.
- criley2 6y ago> I don't know what the distribution of stove type by income level is, but I do have the impression that richer Americans are more likely to have fancy induction ranges, and poorer Americans are more likely to use gas. At a high enough income level you are right that kitchens separate the oven and stove. However you'd be surprised how many high end kitchens will use a gas stove because it's often a better and more versatile cooking tool, plus natural gas is something America has a lot of and is very cheap compared to the Russian gas that many Europeans have to deal with. Also, the poorest of Americans will use electric ranges almost universally because we can make electric ranges for the same or less than a gas range and the poorest of people live in places that don't even get natural gas copper piped through their place. They would just live without it and have electricity only.
- oneplane 6y agoI always thought poor americans couldn't afford general cooking ingredients and end up eating a lot of fastfood?
- Sevii 6y agoIt’s a time/energy issue more than a cost issue. General cooking ingredients are dirt cheap here. But finding time to cook while working multiple part time jobs isn’t as easy.
- dhd415 6y agoFast food in the US is significantly more expensive than preparing your own food from basic ingredients. There may be some lower-income people who eat lots of fast food, but it's certainly not because it's the economical choice.
- sdenton4 6y agoLearning to cook economically and edibly is a barrier to entry. And there's an ongoing higher time-cost per meal due to planning meals, getting ingredients, and (finally) cooking. So it's not suuuper surprising to me that people working 2+ jobs to cover basics end up eating a lot of fast food.
- rodgerd 6y ago> Annoying as I certainly find gas more pleasant to cook with. Induction gives you most of the benefits, without the hazards described in the article, or the same risks of fire and explosion. Also, better induction cookers have useful enhancements such as "hold my pot at 85 degrees" or "hold my fry pan at 180 degrees".
- SECProto 6y agoI grew up with electric, and I've used gas a fair bit in my adult life. I feel like if I could choose only one, induction would be the winner for almost everything. The one exception I can think of is my wok - I'd have to start using a flat bottomed wok, and couldn't tilt it to move the heat onto the side, or lift it a few inches to lower the heat level.
- wolverine876 6y ago> in Philadelphia ... Every time I washed my car there was a thick black layer of soot covering it within a couple days A layer of soot in Philadelphia? I've spent plenty of time there, know plenty who live there, and never saw or heard of such a thing. Were you parking next to a chimney sweep?