I'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..
The health benefits of better air
11–20 of 471 posts
Re: The health benefits of better air
#12This 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.
Re: The health benefits of better air
#13In 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.
Could air quality degradation leading to this be caused by a lifetime of smoking cigarettes indoors?
Re: The health benefits of better air
#14This 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.
Re: The health benefits of better air
#15I 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
Are 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.
Re: The health benefits of better air
#16Thank 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 q…
I'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).
Re: The health benefits of better air
#17In 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.
No 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.
Re: The health benefits of better air
#18Thank 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 q…
How 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.
Re: The health benefits of better air
#19I 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
Are 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.
You need a vast number of house plants to make even a small difference. Basically you'd have to live in a greenhouse.
Re: The health benefits of better air
#20In 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.
I 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.