19 ms·
The health benefits of better air
- nwah1 6y agoIn addition to lost life, there is also a cost to quality of life. Air quality is one of the biggest contributors to the risk of senile dementia. But also the gas composition is known to affect cognition in the short run as well, with a measurable difference in cognitive tests when indoor CO2 is elevated.
- physicles 6y agoNo need to bring in effects to cognition, even. It just sucks to live in a place where “(tonight’s run|tomorrow’s hike) is canceled because the air quality is shit” is a thing.
- jaytaylor 6y agoDownvoted because I don't disagree. But... [Citation needed]
- eindiran 6y agoI'm not sure which claim you're looking for a citation for, but if it was the CO2 and cognition claim, then I have a few for you. This study made quite a few ripples when it came out: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.1510037 https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.1510037 > On average, cognitive scores were 61% higher on the Green building day and 101% higher on the two Green+ building days than on the Conventional building day (p < 0.0001). VOCs [volatile organic compounds] and CO2 were independently associated with cognitive scores. There was also this one, about decision making: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.1104789 https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.1104789 > Relative to 600 ppm, at 1,000 ppm CO2, moderate and statistically significant decrements occurred in six of nine scales of decision-making performance. At 2,500 ppm, large and statistically significant reductions occurred in seven scales of decision-making performance (raw score ratios, 0.06–0.56), but performance on the focused activity scale increased. This one is a high-level overview of the literature on air pollution and health: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP4869 https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP4869
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- shostack 6y agoCould air quality degradation leading to this be caused by a lifetime of smoking cigarettes indoors?
- PurpleFoxy 6y agoI think it’s highly likely that in 20 years we will view diesel cars like we do leaded fuel. An insanely bad idea that we knew was bad at the time but continued to use.
- sneak 6y agoRelated: https://samharris.org/the-fireplace-delusion/ https://samharris.org/the-fireplace-delusion/
- dash2 6y agoMan, that article is a bummer! I grew up in a house with an open fireplace and for long periods we literally used it to cook on (out of poverty, not choice). Those are some of my happiest memories. And now some crazy "rationalist" wants to take away my open fire? IT'S ALL LIES I SAY.
- randomsquared 6y ago> I have discovered that when I make this case, even to highly intelligent and health-conscious men and women, a psychological truth quickly becomes as visible as a pair of clenched fists: They do not want to believe any of it. LOL this happens whenever I talk about this issue with people here in Poland. Part of it is their family is here, it's hard to immigrate, deep down they know it is a problem. It was upsetting to tell my Polish wife that we need to move out of Poland and to scary USA but... she agreed with me and we're doing it. For us, the risk of death is far higher here with all the smoke. Even the California wildfires are relatively harmless in comparison, we get that every year in Poland and no one cares, at least in Calfornia everyone recognizes that it's a problem and people stay at home. But here, wood burning(or even coal burning), is a part of the culture, giving warm fuzzy memories at granny's house burning horrid things in the furnace for others to enjoy.
- cja 6y agoYes, to granny's house! So many political issues result from carefully suggesting that the smoky air at home might not be the best for her ill heart.
- scotty79 6y agoI think some people are so afraid of dangers to their health that they are even afraid to acknowledge them. I think I've seen a lot of this during the pandemic. When you try make people acknowledge the dangers they are facing they are going to panick and defend their peace of mind furiously. Anyways, good luck in the US. Avoid getting shot, having a pool, drinking sugared water instead of water, any medical issue and getting on the bad side of the law in any way. ;-)
- throwaway823882 6y ago> Nothing else is so important while also being so easy to address. It's actually not that easy to address if you don't have extra cash laying around. Most people in the world will not do the things on this list. Other things it leaves out, like frying food (edit: I'm a moron, it does mention it down the line), or buying furniture or clothes that off-gas VOCs, or living or working in a place with fiberglass-lined air ducts, or using a gas range or oven.
- jostmey 6y agoI love this article. But the article misses the use of plants to improve air quality! HEPA air filters can't filter out nano-sized pollutants
- graeme 6y agoAre they actually effective in anything but a sealed space shuttle? Nasa is the source of the plant air quality experiments people reference. In anything but that air exchange will happen much faster than a houseplant can grow. I love plants but I can’t imagine they do much unless you have an absolutely massive quantity.
- angry_octet 6y agoYou need a vast number of house plants to make even a small difference. Basically you'd have to live in a greenhouse.
- MattGaiser 6y agoIf it could be fairly dry, that might not be bad.
- nitrogen 6y agoYou would need to live in a biodome. The only way to remove all the CO2 you exhale would be to grow all the food you eat. Carbon in equals carbon out. Plants still look nice though.
- jostmey 6y agoHEPA filters cannot remove nanoparticles and ionizing filters ionize the air, and well, ozone is not good for us. So plants are far superior in this regard to air purifiers, which are useless
- hderms 6y agoWish I could remember where I read it but the conclusion was that having indoor plants solely to increase air quality isn't a good idea. Obviously it's somewhat better than nothing but so minor as to be largely insignificant given how much air exchange there is with the outside world when you aren't on a shuttle
- throwawaysea 6y agoI never realized that ultrasonic humidifiers would also aerosolize minerals or other contaminants in the water, but it makes sense. I wonder if running a HEPA filter in the same room as the humidifier mitigates the health impact significantly.
- adamjb 6y agoHow is it possible to separate DALYs lost from high BMI from DALYs lost from low vegetables and/or low physical activity? The author never fully explains the methodology behind the graph.
- Greek0 6y agoI don't understand how the author arrives at the conclusion that "[air quality] is often the most effective health intervention, period". How do you take that away from the plots? If you're in the US my prime take-away would be to keep your BMI in check. The first graph shows ~2 deaths per 1000 people per year. Surely more than 2 persons/1000/year die in those countries. What are the causes for the other ~10-15 deaths/1000/year? Given the information in the article, I don't see anything to support the central thesis about air quality. The reasoning for it is so thin that I have no idea whether it's true or not.
- meatmanek 6y agoMost of the world lives outside the US, so "often" would seem to apply to the potential improvement in DALYs. BMI reductions are also notoriously difficult, while many of the mitigations listed in the article are low effort and relatively low cost. You could plausibly include this in your comparison of effectiveness.
- lmm 6y ago> I don't understand how the author arrives at the conclusion that "[air quality] is often the most effective health intervention, period". > How do you take that away from the plots? If you're in the US my prime take-away would be to keep your BMI in check. They mean in terms of cost/benefit. Reducing BMI is notoriously difficult.
- ahaucnx 6y agoThank you for this extensive resource on air quality. Yes, it needs to get more attention as it is one of the main drivers of mortality of environmental risks. One thing one has to bear in mind is that often when you optmize your home for low PM (e.g. with air purifiers and fixing of air leackage) your CO2 will get very high causing headaches and reduce cognitive performance. So it always makes sense for indoor air quality monitoring to measure PM and CO2 in parallel. We have open source, open hardware build instructions for a very reliable Air quality sensor that can be used to measure PM2.5 and also CO2 [1]. It is very accurate for the fraction of the costs of commercial sensors. You can build it for less than USD 20 (or with CO2 for less than USD 50) and send the data to our cloud server or any other backend. I am more than happy to send you some free PCBs (you just paypal me the cost of the postage) and you can build your own sensor and log the data. Contact me if you are interested. [1] https://www.airgradient.com/diy/ https://www.airgradient.com/diy/
- briefcomment 6y agoI've seen a study or two that claim that the bulk of some PM, like brake dust for example, is much smaller than 2.5um. Having exposure to the industry, do you have hopes for sensors that can identify smaller particles than .3um (that's the smallest Purple Air goes).
- eindiran 6y agoHow should someone contact you? I looked into setting up something on an Arduino last year, and the CO2 sensor I ended up purchasing was not very good, so it's cool to see someone thinking about this problem domain.
- scaladev 6y agoFWIW I've been pretty happy with Senseair S8 0053 for my DIY stations. They're relatively expensive though. Not affiliated in any way.
- ahaucnx 6y agoYes the Senseair S8 is very good. Only problem is that the automatic baseline calibration sometimes needs 7-10 days to kick in. But you can also do a manual calibration.
- jonnycomputer 6y agoI'm curious whether the issue the author identifies (real or not) with ultrasonic humidifiers applies also to humidifiers that simply blow air through a wet membrane..
- Plough_Jogger 6y agoI believe these are evaporative and are mentioned: >Just use an evaporative or steam humidifier, which seem to create almost no particles.
- randomsquared 6y agothis article talks about this more: https://molekule.science/should-you-choose-an-ultrasonic-humidifier-for-your-home/ https://molekule.science/should-you-choose-an-ultrasonic-hum... quite interesting
- mrkeen 6y agoIt was interesting right until it became an ad.
- nitrogen 6y agoI found that distilled water does not increase PM0.5 when I run an ultrasonic humidifier, but filtered water causes huge particulate spikes.
- Tade0 6y agoI have both a humidifier and purifier working 24/7, several meters apart and I've noticed that tap water in any form does make the purifier work harder, but demineralized doesn't.
- yosito 6y agoI've got an ultrasonic humidifier. I found that running it for a few hours with Brita filtered water made my whole room full of white dust. So I started using only distilled water. Since getting distilled water means I have to walk a few blocks and refill a 10 liter container every two days, I'll probably not buy an ultrasonic humidifier in the future.
- sdfkbadmiop 6y agoThis seems pretty poorly researched, or at least poorly presented. The numbers the author uses to quantify "life cost", as far as I can tell, come entirely from one graph in the section "A heuristic to quantify harms". The author examined the life-years lost from exposure to ambient particles in multiple countries around the world, concluding that >being exposed to 2500 PM2.5 for one year costs 1 DALY But that line comes from a chart with a range of about 10-100 describing constant exposure to ambient particles. Even if we assume the author's line is correct, identifies a real effect, and correctly ascribes causality, it is not reasonable to draw the conclusions they do. The author speculates burning a cone of incense, which will produce a concentration of about 4000 for a few hours. This is forty times the largest value on the graph and is some 100,000 times shorter in duration. It is ludicrous to try to extrapolate without a great deal more evidence. And, obviously, the types of particles found in the air outside are not the same as the ones found inside. It's a shame that there is some good information on this page ruined by this one bit of shoddy statistics.
- briefcomment 6y agoThis is a good list. One other important thing to do if you can help it is to never live near a road. Any road, even infrequently driven on ones. If there's only one car per day on a road, but you live ten feet from it, and occasionally the wind blows the exhaust in your direction, you're breathing that in. Walls don't help. Live at least one mile in a straight line from highways.
- PurpleFoxy 6y agoIronically, following this advice makes the problem even worse as you now require a car to do anything. IMO, cities should just ban almost all car traffic from the centres so people can live car free without being poisoned.
- briefcomment 6y agoThat's a more ideal solution, but it's probably faster to move than for a city to make changes like that. You can try to stock up on food and grow crops to minimize driving.
- clairity 6y agoput urban roads (and parking) underground, and use industrial scrubbers at air exchange. expensive but worth it. tax fossil fuels/carbon to subsidize this and internalize the environmental costs.
- briefcomment 6y agoI really hope we get to mag lev highways or something similar in the near future (electrically powered of course). No burning, and no friction
- PurpleFoxy 6y agoThe cost would be so insane that no one would bother. Just park at the perimeter and take a tram or walk to the last part of your destination.
- 6y ago
- hettygreen 6y agoI'm surprised "having a bonfire" isn't on this list, but I'm afraid to see how detrimental it might be. The nostalgia factor is sort of wearing off now that I'm 40 and don't want my clothes to smell bad or have a low-key asthma attack. The last time I went camping in a campground and everyone had a fire going, the whole park was completely choked with smoke that it made going for a walk really crappy. It's such a weird activity, driving cars out to the woods to pay to burn dead trees.
- brbsix 6y agoPretty close to being on the list. "Have a really smoky fire at home. Life cost: 1 day" Considering the close association of food, warmth, security and socialization with the habitual use of fire for at the very least several hundred thousand years of human history, is it really any surprise that some people still enjoy the practice? https://dynomight.net/air/#:~:text=Have%20a%20really,1%20day https://dynomight.net/air/#:~:text=Have%20a%20really,1%20day
- MauranKilom 6y agoWell, would you consider a cozy fire with family to be worth giving one day of your life for? I mean, what do you live for?
- modeless 6y agoI'm surprised this doesn't mention gas stoves and ovens. Gas is the "high end" option, yet creates totally unnecessary PM2.5 pollution in your home. Children growing up with gas stoves have higher rates of asthma.
- eli 6y agoSome California cities were banning gas hookup on new homes. It’s all gonna be electric in the future.
- ReactiveJelly 6y ago> Gas is the "high end" option Few years ago I moved from a little apartment with an electric range to an SFH with gas everything. "Good for you," my gas-enthusiast family said, "now you have a REAL stove" It still takes forever to boil water in a pot. The food tastes the same. I wonder why furnaces have these fancy high-efficiency heat exchangers and stoves don't? Cost? I wouldn't mind going back to electric. I just assumed it cost more, but maybe cooking isn't significant compared to running a furnace.
- PurpleFoxy 6y agoYou can get some really high power induction stoves now. This one we have goes up to 12KW at full power. Boils a pot of water real fast.
- amatecha 6y agoIt does take a while to boil water (although not nearly as long in my experience), and food tastes the same, but there's essentially zero time waiting for the heating element to heat up. For me that's the big difference -- near-instant control over the amount of heat being applied.
- amatecha 5y agoWhy would someone downvote that? Pretty lame. I'm sharing my personal, relevant experience. Make a comment if you somehow disagree or thing I missed the mark... Like.. what?
- gruez 6y ago>Broil fish with windows closed 45 min >Smoke one cigarette 11 min How is "boiling fish" 4x worse than smoking?
- briefcomment 6y agoNot boiling, broiling. Boiling creates minimal PM, broiling creates a lot.
- lkschubert8 6y agoBroiling is normally using an oven heating element at high heat to sear something and not the same as boiling.
- curiousgeorgio 6y agoHaving lived in Central America, I can tell you that almost none of the recommendations[1] here are relevant, at least in relation to the kind of air pollution that kills the numbers of people shown in those graphs. Smoky fires (mostly for cooking) inside small huts are everywhere in much of the world, and very few of the affected people understand the risks. Even if they did, they rarely have any viable alternatives. If you tried to tell those people about particle counters or HEPA filters, you might as well tell them about cold fusion while you're at it. Sure, all the things mentioned might help, but for anyone with the means to follow the recommendations in this article (and with the ability to read an article), I can almost guarantee that air quality is not going to be a major factor in your life expectancy. [1] With the exception of "Be careful about smoke when cooking."
- briefcomment 6y agoIt's not just about life expectancy, but life quality. I think we'll one day be surprised just how many mental health and chronic illnesses are significantly attributable to air pollution, in all its forms.
- curiousgeorgio 6y agoThat's a fair point, though I'd still wager that for those of us not cooking over open fires, those effects are likely very minimal - at least in contrast to the people mentioned earlier.
- briefcomment 6y agoEverything's relative, sure, but pay close attention to your sense of well being the next time you're in a car with an air freshener, or someone sprays febreeze in a room. You'll probably start to feel uneasy and/or have dulled senses very quickly. Do that often enough, and the abuse adds up.
- randomsquared 6y agoEven here in Poland. People burn anything to stay warm, oil even. The unhealthy pollution starts in November then ends in March. The entire time everyone, including children, are outside, pretending like it's not a problem. People running in the streets. And when you bring it up to people they get angry. Schools don't close, everyone continues like it's normal. I'm moving back to the west coast USA soon. I could live in a shack and my family would be better off. People complain about the wildfires, but in Poland they get it every year, and for longer. Try forbidding your kids to go out(too young to wear a mask) the entire winter... Even if you somehow make the perfect environment at home, those kids will eventually have to physically go to school and brave pollution. Before the pandemic I was the only crazy one with a mask during high pollution days. If kids wore a mask because of pollution then I was told they would be ostracized. So, other than that elephant in the room, it's a perfect country.
- moneywoes 6y agoIs there a consensus verdict on air filters? Seeing a lot of conflicting info
- antisthenes 6y agoA consensus regarding what specifically? Air filters do reduce the amount of particles in the air if that's what you're asking.
- saltdoo 6y agoIndeed there is an anti vaping conspiracy!
- hourislate 6y agoA simple 20 x 20 Box fan with a furnace HEPA filter placed against it (just turn on fan and place filter behind it) will do wonders for your indoor air quality. The 3M 2200 Series Filtrete Filters are amazing. You also always want to cook with the Hood Fan going. The particulate that is created during cooking is so small it can pass through the lungs into your blood stream causing havoc.
- hazemotes 6y agoHow long do the filters last?
- hourislate 6y agoIt all depends on how dirty your air is. I typically get about 2-3 months. Ir you're considering it, I would recommend the following fan. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lasko-20-in-Power-Plus-Box-Fan-B20540/300202629 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lasko-20-in-Power-Plus-Box-Fan-B... I have 3 running in my home and they haven't been turned off for over 1.5 years, still going strong. The filters I buy at Costco when on sale (3 for $29). This one has been on the fan 24x7 for the last 2 months and is still good for a couple of more. https://imgur.com/JfSjbbg https://imgur.com/JfSjbbg
- ddeck 6y agoAs another commenter noted, it depends on your air, but a decent HEPA filter (H13/H14 etc.) will last a very long time if you remove the coarse dust first with a prefilter. The prefilter is typically a lot cheaper and is replaced more often. Even some non-woven filter fabric (like that used in vacuum cleaner filters) will dramatically increase the HEPA filter life, is super cheap, and can be washed for reuse. My purifiers use an F8 prefilter and H13 HEPA filter, and the HEPA filter will last about 2 years. Filter class info here: https://www.emw.de/en/filter-campus/filter-classes.html https://www.emw.de/en/filter-campus/filter-classes.html
- pbourke 6y agoWe run box-fan filters during wildfire season here in the PNW and change them out after the season ends. Last year they were quite gray after all of the fires. We run Honeywell HEPA cleaners year round and bring the box fans out to supplement as needed.
- cubicmeter 6y agoUnless the author is not only a scientist but a really good one, I cannot personally believe any of this material. If particles were as essential to health as claimed, smokers would have a much much shorter life expectancy.
- datlife 6y agoAgree. S/he is selling air filters, so the intention is obvious to me here. Anyways, it's an interesting read but I'll take it with a grain of salt.
- ac29 6y agoI dont see any evidence they are selling anything. No links, or even names of products on the various pages about air filters.
- briefcomment 6y agoFrom another comment thread > It's not just about life expectancy, but life quality. I think we'll one day be surprised just how many mental health and chronic illnesses are significantly attributable to air pollution, in all its forms.
- MattGaiser 6y ago> Life expectancy for smokers is at least 10 years shorter than for nonsmokers. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/index.htm#:~:text=Cigarette%20smoking%20causes%20premature%20death,years%20shorter%20than%20for%20nonsmokers.&text=Quitting%20smoking%20before%20the%20age,related%20disease%20by%20about%2090%25 https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/heal....
- rantwasp 6y agolol. smoking reduces your life expectancy by 15% on average.
- MattGaiser 6y agoI want to get to the point where houses are designed with all the things mentioned in this thread in mind.
- PurpleFoxy 6y agoFirst we have to get to the point where basic insulation and noise dampening are figured out. House quality is really terrible.
- randomsquared 6y agoIn the USA yes, especially the west coast. In Poland I was about to get a condo constructed but not doing that anymore, but the process was quite interesting. The insulation blew most everything in the USA out of the water. Mostly because they have no choice given the really cold winters. During the winter pollution gets really bad and if you shut the windows, pollution goes down indoors, but so does CO2. Ideally you have a hepa filter + outdoor A/C that brings in warm filtered air during the winter.
- Thlom 6y agoYeah. Stuff like high quality insulation, balanced ventilation and so on has been required in new homes in much of Europe for more than a decade ...
- yakubin 6y agoNoise dampening is still an issue. Where I'm living, the whole flat is subject to resonance, when old buses drive by. It's like living inside the throat of a bass vocalist. That, and I hear every laugh a child has outside, even though I'm on 7th floor (8th, if you count like USA-ians do). It's terrible.
- danans 6y agoWe are at that point from a technology perspective - look up passive houses - but it's still far too niche an area. For new construction, it's actually not that much more expensive, and is also far more comfortable and energy efficient also.
- ThreeFinger 6y agoAny recommendations for an air purifiers and some devices to measure the air quality?
- WalterBright 6y agoI bought a CO2 meter a year ago and was shocked at the result. My office would routinely go over 1000ppm. Now I keep the window cracked, that keeps it down around 5-600. Outside is around 400.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- emptybits 6y agoEVs reduce tailpipe exhaust near roads but it's worth noting that brake abrasion dust isn't going away anytime soon and it's considered very bad to breathe, possibly in the same league as diesel emission particles.[1] I guess regenerative braking on an EV reduces this somewhat. Tire dust is also concerning.[2] [1] https://academic.oup.com/metallomics/article/12/3/371/5956240 https://academic.oup.com/metallomics/article/12/3/371/595624... [2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22642836/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22642836/
- Thlom 6y agoOne of the problems with EV’s is that the brake discs are rusting because they almost never gets used.
- Qwertious 6y ago"problems"
- garmaine 6y agoYes, problem. Because the end it sheds more particulate matter when it is used. So the savings might not be as high as imagined.
- thrwaeasddsaf 6y agoIt's a real problem. Your brakes can get totally stuck (been there), also you can fail the car's inspection with rusty brakes.
- scotty79 6y agoI don't think that really happens because breaks are used every time you stop. You can't regeratively break to 0.
- thrwaeasddsaf 6y agoDepends on how much your drive. Drive only now and then and brake only the bare minimum, you can get really rusty brakes. I ended up having to get towed with brakes being seized due to rust and lack of use.
- dcolkitt 6y agoThe biggest pitfall I see with this is we’re extrapolating from large doses of air pollution to very tiny ones. Clearly we have enough evidence to say that smoking a pack a day or living in a smog-filled city will cut years off your life. But we would need truly gigantic samples to show that blowing birthday candles or broiling fish once a week will cut weeks off your life. Instead these conclusions are being derived on linear extrapolations from large air particulate doses. Yet many things in biology follow the principal of hormesis, where a small dose or a toxin may be harmless or even helpful. Similar models have been used for years and are still the gold standard when predicting the health effects of radiation exposure. Yet mountains of evidence show that radiation workers, who are regularly exposed to small dosages of otherwise harmful regulation do not have anywhere near the cancer rates we’d expect from the linear extrapolation models.
- colechristensen 6y agoEverything is a poison, only dosage takes that characteristic away.
- fsh 6y agoCould you give some citations for studies on radiation workers? The permissible doses in most countries are extremely low and there are not that many people working in the industry. This makes me wonder they manage to achieve statistically significant results.
- dcolkitt 6y agoThis paper had a good summary: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2663584/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2663584/
- quietbritishjim 6y agoSorry for the pendantry: it sounds like you mean linear interpolation, rather than extrapolation. Extrapolation is where you project outside the range of previously collected data, and is particularly likely to result in false conclusions. Interpolation is where you estimate a value inside the range of collected data from points around it, and is usually a lot less dangerous. But I agree with your point that, in this case, it does seem pretty baseless.
- 3dee 6y agoLately I start to wonder if the symptoms of covid-19 are worse in areas with high air polution. India is an example but in parts of the Netherlands where we have the worst air quality in Europe, we also see this. It's hard to tell. But having a respiratory disease in an area of bad air quality won't help you.
- satellite2 6y agoInteresting, there could be a correlation. At the same time early in the pandemic I remember reading that being a smoker had a moderate impact in reducing COVID symptoms severity.
- FrojoS 6y agoI had read about potentially protective effects of nicotine [1], but seems like it was a fluke https://www.nature.com/articles/s41533-021-00223-1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41533-021-00223-1 [1] There is even a RCT on this, but no results yet https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04583410 https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04583410
- baron816 6y agoCan anyone here recommend a good non-ultrasonic humidifier?
- proc0 6y agoUS with worse physical activity... I think this is car culture taking its toll. So many spend so much time in their car, and forget that you're really just sitting down. This means that in order to get the most value out of a car, you have to sit more. More hours on the road, less hours moving around. I'm not prescribing anything for anyone... it's fine if people want to spend most of their day in their car, I'm just saying some people are looking like their body has been molded by a car seat, and can't walk for a few blocks without getting tired.
- scotty79 6y agoI think aversion to drinking unsweetened water and it's influence on BMI is huge factor for USA health.
- crazygringo 6y agoThis article seems to make fantastic jumps from the believable -- mortality from overall air pollution (e.g. in Delhi) to the frankly unbelievable -- your ultrasonic humidifier supposedly reducing your life by nearly an hour each night, or that a daily commute between Newark and NYC takes half a year off your life. According to this logic, anyone who works in the subway should be dying, what, 10 years earlier? Which is obviously not happening. Similarly, it seems impossible to believe that the minerals in the air from humidifiers are equivalently dangerous to factory pollution or cigarette smoke. Different categories of particles are going to affect the body differently, no? I mean, our body requires minerals -- we're drinking them in our water all day long -- while certain factories may be belching out straight-up poison. These statistics are just not passing the smell test. They seem to be extrapolations of extrapolations of extrapolations. This article's conclusions don't seem even remotely convincing.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- erosenbe0 6y agoStatistical evidence for high BMI's effect on quality of life and morbidity is more compelling, at least in the developed world. Author's thesis does stand insofar as AQ often being overlooked as a causative agent behind cardiovascular disease.
- Mauricebranagh 6y agoBMI is known as a very bad measure
- ejolto 6y agoWhat I gather from this is that I should stop broiling fish and start smoking cigarettes instead.
- blackoil 6y agoOur body should have >0 capacity to cleanup the toxins absorbed. Considering we shed billions of cells every day and generate replacement for them. So the smoke absorbed from blowing the candle may be exhaled/shit/farted sometime before next candle. Also, one thing these stats miss/don't bring out is the quality of life. e.g. living in Delhi may reduce your life only by 3 years, but may substantially impact health in the last 15 years of your life.
- matgillard 6y agoNow I'm happy to have my dyson at home!
- AppleCandy 6y agoLaundry and clothes by far creates the most dust and particles in my home, probably yours too. At night, with the lights off and the room dark, turn on your phone LED pointed at the ceiling. Look closely at the air just above the light, you'll see tiny little material threads and speckles. I do not like the idea of constantly breathing that in. I've used an expensive HEPA air filter in my room and did some testing, lo and behold: when I checked the air with my phone LED it was absolutely teeming with material particulates (probably cotton, which I mostly wear). The air filter creates a circulation in the room disturbing dormant dust and kicking it up into the air, but the filter doesn't seem to catch and contain this dust. Alternatively, when I left my room window open without any filter and allow fresh outside air in, the phone LED test later reveals almost pristine air quality probably a 100x decrease in particulates. I'm now trying out a water-based air scrubber, one that looks like a fish bowl. It agitates the water, non-ultrasonically, just using rotation, and sends air through the wash. Doesn't seem to be more effective than just letting fresh air in through the window though.
- scotty79 6y agoI think large, visible particles are not as bad as the small ones like PM10, PM2.5, PM1
- magicalhippo 6y agoI had a lot of issues with an allergic-like reaction to my old bedroom when temporarily moving back to my parent's house while switching apartments. It was a bit dusty there, but visibly it didn't look too bad. I had noticed this before while crashing there every now and then, but hadn't thought much of it. But since I had to stay there for a while I had to do something. So I bought an air purifier with HEPA filter and let it work at full blast while I was at work. The first few days had a very noticeable improvement, and after five days I had no issues at all anymore.
- scotty79 6y agoIt's weird that people get alergic to stuff they grew up with. I grew up with cats. Never had a problem with them. My last cat died when I was 21. I moved out. I didn't have any contact with a cat for about 4 years. Bam, now I'm alergic to cats. Air purifier does wonderful thing for people with allergies. Thanks to it I could pretty much stayed off meds last year.
- 5Zio 6y agoI thoroughly enjoyed reading this in-depth article. As we're working on air quality at Airica, it's great to see that this topic is getting more attention lately. We focus on easy to deploy air quality monitoring for schools and offices. In these spaces it's just as much about CO2 as PM as high CO2 levels reduce cognitive performance significantly. This 2016 study shows 61-101% better cognitive scores in well ventilated buildings: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4892924/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4892924/
- srg0 6y ago> No incense. OK > Extinguish candles with a lid. Why no candles instead?
- lmm 6y agoYou can enjoy candles without having to blow them out. Whereas the whole point of incense is to smell it.
- sundvor 6y agoLucky we're getting a Clean Air Tax in Victoria, Australia - to keep the pesky, potentially solar powered EVs off the road - before we reach 1% market rate. Should help keep the diesels safe. Oh, wait.
- cfn 6y agoI suppose one option to help this (if you are really worried about it) is to move to a less polluted place.
- syats 6y agoThis very dubious text is a good example of why scientists need to go through some basic training, and articles need to be reviewed (even by your officemate!) before going online.
- nullc 6y agoI'm dubious that water soluble 'particles' from water hardness are a major concern. The meters can just distinguish sizes, but I expect that particles of a given size can radically differ in how harmful they are if nothing else based just on the body's ability to clear them.
- dandare 6y ago> Install a HEPA cabin air filter in your car. If you drive a lot this should be #1 on your list. How come this is not an absolute standard in the automotive industry? Last time I have tried to purchase a HEPA cabin filter for my Hyundai i40 I failed to find any.
- aussieguy1234 6y agoI stumbled across this and coincidentally, I've just moved to Tasmania. Supposedly, it has the world's cleanest air. There is an air pollution monitoring station on the west coast which sets a baseline measurement for the rest of the world. I can definitely tell the difference vs Sydney where I used to live.
- collyw 6y ago"Breathe second hand vape smoke". It's water vapor and propylene glycol and some flavourings. It certainly isn't smoke.
- layoutIfNeeded 6y agoThis article seems to be using a linear no-threshold model for quantifying the effect of air pollution, which is the dumbest model basically.
- randomsquared 6y agoI have a random question for those who survived the smoke in 2020 california: California homes have horrible insulation.. did having an air filter indoors make a difference?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- blunte 6y agothat's too bad. I really liked Chiang Mai.
- blumomo 6y agoThe people's fear of dying is creating too many problems on this earth. Instead of wasting your energy trying not to die, accept that you will be dying one day, later or sooner, and you will be much happier. You will be using your time on earth much more wisely.
- elchief 6y agoor spend a few hundred bucks and add a few healthy years to the end of your life
- blumomo 6y ago"Fearing death is the easiest way not to be happy"
- cjohansson 6y agoDoing like this you can prove anything you want, I don't believe in this kind of argumentation / science
- chiefalchemist 6y agoSkimming the comments (i.e., those missing the lede)...the arc of the article is this: breathing is another form of eating. It's how your body consumes additional resources and persists. You breathe all day. Every day. One breath probably won't kill you. But take enough breaths of the wrong micro-substance and that aggregation will likely shorten your life. Perhaps significantly. Conclusion: If watching your (food) diet is important so is you gases (i.e., air) diet. Makes sense.
- gher-shyu3i 6y agoThis means that everyone should wear N95+ masks on the subway trains.
- FridayoLeary 6y agocan i point out that mortality isn't the only statistic. Health is just as important. I know 70 year olds who are sick and weak, and 90 year olds who are fit and healthy
- forgotmypw17 6y agoBiggest source of indoor air pollution in the West is "cleaning" products, ironically.
- phantom_oracle 6y agoMicro-managing your life to this extent is probably why all dystopian books/movies involve some well-meaning technical person who thinks we should be doing XYZ to prolong our lives. While these things may (anecdotally) prolong your life, does anybody really want to be 102 and having to be nursed for all the basic needs like bathing yourself? Combine this article with the many(many) others that tell you how to micro-manage all aspects of your life(to be "super productive") and you instantly find that once you start to deviate from your steady-state of micro-management, your worry skyrockets.
- antigirl 6y agoI lived in BKK for over a year and I checked the AQI like weather. I bought a reliable pm2 reader. Air filtering system for my house and wore a mask religiously outside. The air was so bad that I began to get very ill before i started to employ these 'Micro-managements'
- shlant 6y agoI never understood perspectives akin to "why would I want to add years to my life when I'll just be old anyways?". I think many people don't realize that if you take care of your body (especially eating well and movement) you not only extend your lifespan but your quality of life as well in the later years. Anecdotally, my parents exercise regularly and take decent care of themselves compared to their friends (I even got them juicing regularly). You can tell the difference because most of their friends of the same age are dying or living a severely reduced quality of life while my dad still plays hockey regularly and my mom exercises daily. Both have very few health issues (other than a bit of high blood pressure). I guess what I'm getting at is that it's kind of sad to me that we've become so used to the idea that old age automatically = shitty when I think there is so much that we could be doing that would mean we could live long lives AND still have autonomy and comfort. I definitely agree that if you micromanage things to a level where you are just stressing or orthorexic that's not good, but I don't think that's the only approach if you want to live a long, healthy life.
- majani 6y agoWhat age are your parents? I find it hard to believe that you can live past 80 years with a high quality of life, barring having 1 in 100 age-related genetics
- Lhd 6y agointeresting analysis and good discussion. but did everyone succeeded on the 'not dying' thing?
- baryphonic 6y agoThis was interesting. One question: what is the DALY cost of my wife's aerosolized "essential oil" concoctions?
- batmansmk 6y agoCorrelation does not imply causation. Being rich gives you an extra 14.6 years: more money usually correlates to better food, better environment, better healthcare, etc. Owning a Tesla Model Y, indirect marker of wealth would be good for you otherwise.
- shlant 6y agoI think this is a bit handwavy. There is a lot of evidence to show that air quality has an impact on health. How much might be harder to quantify, but I don't think it's unreasonable to think we might be underestimating its impact.
- intrasight 6y agoTwo years ago, I participated in a rocis.org study cohort. It was very informative. Participants are given a collection of monitors (particulate, CO2, radon, and one other I can't remember). We are given three air particulate monitors. participants collect the data and send it back to rocis.org. Here were some of the main takeaways personally. Note that I live in Pittsburgh which doesn't have great air. A. The idea that you should "open your window to let in fresh air" is false. The outdoor air is 10x worse at my house and I don't live it a "polluted" neighborhood but in the burbs. B. Monitoring is very insightful. I put one monitor outside, one in the living room, and one in my bedroom. The outdoor air like I said was 10x worse than indoors. Indoors wasn't so great either. I replaced my furnace electrostatic filters with quality HEPA filters (they make box filters the same size as electrostatic panels and they are beasts). The indoor air quality improved by about 30%. I added a Blue HEPA filter to the bedroom. It runs continuously at the middle fan setting. Bedroom air quality improved by about 50%. C. Cooking is the biggest contributor to indoor pollution. When you monitor in real-time this becomes obvious. Induction is the way to go. Of course, the high-end appliance manufacturers are going to continue to make you covet that gas range. But if you're building or renovating a kitchen, go inductive.
- graeme 6y agoWow what’s the pm 2.5 in Pittsburgh? In montreal it is 40 or so, and I find with windows open the indoor level will be 4-13. Totally agreed about cooking. Surprising how much a tiny scree up can send rates skyrocketing to 300+.
- intrasight 6y agoDuring the pandemic, the air has been better. Averages in 40-50 range
- deeblering4 6y agoIt’s interesting that installing an ERV system (energy recovery ventilation) in the home wasn't mentioned. These are devices that bring in fresh air from outside but retain much of the inside temperature. Many things in the home offgas harmful chemicals or particulates. Continually cycling the air is a good way to reduce the amount you are breathing, especially in highly efficient homes that are close to air tight.
- graeme 6y agoYears ago I read scientists saying that indoor air pollution was one of the largest causes of death, disease, and decreased quality of life. So I decided to take it seriously. This is one of my biggest eccentricities, as people find it very hard to believe anything invisible matters. My biggest hack in this regard: living somewhere with low enough ambient pollution that you can open a window. Say less than 50 pm 2.5 outdoors. This reliably leads to a pm 2.5 of 4 indoors, even with windows shut, as long as I am not cooking poorly. Then the open window will vent VOCs and CO2. Even a tiny crack of an open window in winter is sufficient. In summer you need more open. That’s pretty much it, and the rest is making sure not to burn stuff when cooking, which mostly involves keeping the stove clean and not letting anything fall on the burners, and putting hot water in warm pans after cooking. I measure all of this with an awair, a laseregg, and a co2 monitor. It’s pretty low effort and I feel confident the air quality is good. If I do mess up while cooking I open windows to vent and put on a mask until it has dissipated. It’s all mostly just background habit now.
- kingsloi 6y agofor anyone interested, we have terrible air quality in the "steel city" Gary, Indiana. I track the air quality and industry https://millerbeach.community https://millerbeach.community in/around my lil community using a PurpleAir II
- sarsway 6y agoVery informative article. I don't get the Vikings though? > Be a Viking - 4 years What does it have to do with air pollution and why 4 years? Just randomly thrown in Vikings into the article?
- mensetmanusman 6y agoWe recommend to our new parent friends that they get a room air purifier for their new babies. It simultaneously generates white noise and the accompanying deep bass rumble that is calming like a car ride, and it gives peace of mind knowing that they spend a third of their life with ultra clean air. https://www.consumerreports.org/products/air-purifiers-29549/room-air-purifier-29550/3m-filtrete-ultra-clean-air-purifier-fap03-91799/ https://www.consumerreports.org/products/air-purifiers-29549... This one has lasted almost a decade of continuous night time usage. It’s amazing how dirty the air is when you see it.
- MengerSponge 6y agoI have a Dylos air quality monitor. It's a great combination of sensitivity and price, and it's led me to dramatically change my habits. I no longer simmer things with my gas range all day (I use an induction cooker instead). I stopped using any candles/incense. I run a HEPA filter in my bedroom 24/7, and I always keep that door shut.
- abarringer 6y agoIs there any evidence that people who live in areas with better air have better health outcomes overall? Hong Kong average life expectancy is 85. Iceland is 83. Hong Kong has poor air quality and Iceland has some of the best. I'm for better air quality but it's just part of the puzzle.
- elchief 6y ago"Ambient PM2.5 concentration was associated with exacerbation of schizophrenia" https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29682692/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29682692/ "Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been associated with increased risk of heart disease,1 insulin resistance (IR),2 and diabetes,3 all conditions that are characterized by inflammation" https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.122-a29 https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.122-a29 Basically, if it causes an immune/inflamatorry response, it leads to chronic disease https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/inflammation-a-unifying-theory-of-disease https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/inflammation-...
- splithalf 6y agoAnybody that lives somewhere with heavy PM doesn’t need to fit test a mask. You instantly feel the difference when you put one on. They don’t block many types of pollution, but for heavy wildfire smoke they will instantly decrease the migraines when pm are above 200 or so.
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- rashel2429 6y agogreat
- sizzle 6y agoAnyone know the particulate exposure levels of being around your car in the garage and starting and stopping the engine multiple times a day (garage door open), how much is this going to effectively reduce your lifespan from being around combustion engines daily.
- sizzle 6y agoAlso any idea what the VOCs pollution or particulate matter is being released in the air from heated electronics e.g. lcd TV panel getting hit, computer monitors getting hot (WFH running it all day),hot laptops, hot charging bricks for electronics, etc. I tend to smell the bad chemical smells from these hot electronics in plastic casing, what about furniture and other stuff indoors imparting VOCs e.g. formaldehyde? Surely these things are additive to the things mentioned in the article and bad for our health?
- sizzle 6y agoThere is also the issue of brake dust and rubber from tires on asphalt close to highways and major roads that are not good to breathe in when exercising outdoors.
- husamia 5y agoDid you know that the world trade center debris in the air were actually carried many miles away. Some of us are still suffering from the pollution it caused. I read that in a research article.