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The health benefits of better air

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Re: The health benefits of better air

#32

Post by carabiner »

jostmey wrote: post #7

I 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

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/indoor-p...

> The science is clear: Indoor vegetation doesn’t significantly remove pollutants from the air

Re: The health benefits of better air

#33

Post by acwan93 »

briefcomment wrote: post #14

This 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.

I’ve thought about this while cycling to work that I’m inhaling a bunch of exhaust, but with the push to EVs will this no longer be an issue?

Dust and particulates that settle on asphalt will still be a problem though.

Re: The health benefits of better air

#34

Post by curiousgeorgio »

Having 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."

Re: The health benefits of better air

#36

Post by briefcomment »

acwan93 wrote: post #33
briefcomment wrote: post #14

This 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.

I’ve thought about this while cycling to work that I’m inhaling a bunch of exhaust, but with the push to EVs will this no longer be an issue? Dust and particulates that settle on asphalt will still be a problem though.

It will take time for exhaust particles to be significantly reduced as a result of EVs, plus, the increased weight of EVs will create more tire and asphalt wear, which is also quite bad (possibly worse).

Re: The health benefits of better air

#39

Post by hourislate »

A 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.
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