Now I'm happy to have my dyson at home!
The health benefits of better air
181–190 of 471 posts
Re: The health benefits of better air
#182This 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…
> According to this logic, anyone who works in the subway should be dying, what, 10 years earlier? Which is obviously not happening. I don't think you're being honest here, it obviously isn't try to make the point that each commute = 1 year, that's why it's in the "lifestyle" category and not in the "single event" one
> it obviously isn't try to make the point that each commute = 1 year
They aren't saying one commute takes a year off the life. They're saying that people who's job is riding the public commute infrastructure spend roughly 20 times as much time breathing the air in the commuter infrastructure as people who commute to/from work, so if the effect is linear... that's roughly a 10 year reduction in lifespan.
Or, are you trying to say that some underlying common factor between commuting and home/office air quality is present, and so the commute is just a proxy for that common factor? If that's the case, if that common factor is identifiable, it should be named. If that common factor isn't identifiable, how are we confident in attributing it to air quality?
Or, are you claiming that the air quality in the commute infrastructure is the culprit, but the effect is dramatically sublinear?
Re: The health benefits of better air
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could you get a few more plants around the house? Plants can remove things like benzene, formaldehyde, xylene, and toluene. Maybe not the fastest but certainly don't cost much once you have them.
Unfortunately this myth, which I also once believed, has been debunked. You just need waaaay too many plants to actually have an effect. The tests the myth were based on all assumed a closed system, which just isn't realistic. From one randomly googled article on the myth of house plants cleaning the air: "To remove toxins, you would need at least 10 plants per square foot."
To remove how many "toxins" exactly? Like, let's say I actually have a shitload of plants, like my ceiling is just lined with peace lilies. Presumably there is some % of something being removed, I'd be curious to hear what that is.
Re: The health benefits of better air
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really prefer co2 levels lower than outside? What's your outside environment?
Before the industrial revolution the CO2 levels outside were around 250ppm or at least less than 300. Current levels outside as measured by my device just now are about 450ppm.
My measurement is also about 450ppm and it's fine for me. How do you discovered lower level is better for you?
Re: The health benefits of better air
#185A 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.
I also do this, but the box fan is so noisy, even on low settings. How do you put up with it? Or maybe I just have a bad model?
Re: The health benefits of better air
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
EVs drastically reduce brake dust.
Probably not in the city, regenerative breaking doesn't fit most scenarios, especially seeing how people tend to drive high torque vehicles.
What? I am driving EVs multiple times a week in a European city and regenerative breaking is always happening at every brake action until mechanical brakes kick in.
That must reduce appliance of mechanical brakes at least by half.
You can turn regen braking off, but why would you unless maybe the EV model feels like shit when switching between regenerative and mechanical brakes.
Re: The health benefits of better air
#187This 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…
Extinguish candles with a lid. If you are worrying about the method by which you extinguish a candle, worrying is what's going to shorten your life, not the candle.
I have a cheap pm10 meter and ran it continuously for a few weeks. Next too cooking meat the other activity that stood out was blowing out the birthday candles. The pm10 rose to 300 and only was backs to healthy levels (below 50) several hours later. I was as surprised as you are. Next time I'll definitely open a window
Re: The health benefits of better air
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have an AirVisual Pro, which is quite expensive, but my half finished air quality monitor project had been on the bench for much too long. I have windows open all the time, air conditioning on too often, and dehumidifiers and HEPA filters as well. It is not efficient or particularly environmentally friendly... but I want a CO2 level My next half baked idea is figuring out a way to have a sealed home and an applianc…
note that the effects of periodically higher co2 concentrations on overall health is inconclusive at best (life evolved with significant co2 around). particulate matter and atmospheric pollutants (like voc’s), however, are most assuredly detrimental to our health, so it makes sense to act mainly on the latter (with air filters/purifiers) over the former.
I've worked in offices where the CO2 levels regularly spiked to levels not seen since... pants first started colonizing the land.
It's been, what, 30? 50? million years since atmospheric CO2 levels matched current outdoor levels, much less what happens inside.
Re: The health benefits of better air
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
put 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.
Where I live it takes several years to paint a pedestrian crossing. Even if we decided to put all traffic underground, nobody alive today would see that project finished.
i’ve had streets near me repaved twice, many repainted more than twice, and a water main under a street replaced/repaired twice, in the past 10 years, while other pothole-riddled streets nearby are still waiting their turn. it’s inscrutable why that is.
Re: The health benefits of better air
#190This 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…
Extinguish candles with a lid. If you are worrying about the method by which you extinguish a candle, worrying is what's going to shorten your life, not the candle.
I wonder if people thought the same about radioactive substances?
There's a large body of emerging science that points to inhaled particulates reducing health and lifespan.