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The health benefits of better air

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Re: The health benefits of better air

#261

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

saiya-jin wrote: post #243
darkwater wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no way an expert on the matter but by pure logic it's still amazes me how we survived (and evolved!) as a species for thousand of years without almost no shelter from direct sunlight and yet now (too much) sunlight exposure is seen as a cause of death. I know we lost almost all the body hair we used to have but still, we usually wear clothes when under the sun.

Shepherds (like all folks) wear and wore clothes, long sleeves and often hats also in the summer. Also if skin is exposed to sun regularly, often, its much less sensitive compared to usual office worker seeing almost no sunlight and then having 2 weeks of mega exposure and sunburns on vacation.

The last time I looked in to this, enough sun exposure to tan is also enough sun exposure for folk of northern European discent to badly increase skin cancer risks.

This is why tanning studios have been banned in Australia.

Re: The health benefits of better air

#262

Post by CalRobert »

GrumpySloth wrote: post #244
darkwater wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no way an expert on the matter but by pure logic it's still amazes me how we survived (and evolved!) as a species for thousand of years without almost no shelter from direct sunlight and yet now (too much) sunlight exposure is seen as a cause of death. I know we lost almost all the body hair we used to have but still, we usually wear clothes when under the sun.

According to my naive knowledge: 1. We have more ozone holes now. 2. We weren't constantly in direct contact with sunlight. If you move past very early stages, we had shelter in forests, caves, tents, igloos. 3. When we were in direct contact with sunlight, we had a darker skin, which is more resilient to that. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Moving to the country and being outside for 8+ hours of the day finally made it clear that cowboy hats, sombreros, etc. don't have wide brims just for fashion.

Re: The health benefits of better air

#263

Post by arisAlexis »

crazygringo wrote: post #130

This 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…

do you know of mortality statistics specifically for subway workers? Because it may very well surprise you and it can't be grounds for dismissing the hypothesis.

Re: The health benefits of better air

#264

Post by aussieguy1234 »

I 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.

Re: The health benefits of better air

#265

Post by arisAlexis »

darkwater wrote: post #239
ehnto wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to point out how why this is a fairly nuanced topic, a shepherd may be breathing clean air but they're also exposed to UV radiation all day. They may have a higher morbidity due to increased skin cancer rates.

I'm no way an expert on the matter but by pure logic it's still amazes me how we survived (and evolved!) as a species for thousand of years without almost no shelter from direct sunlight and yet now (too much) sunlight exposure is seen as a cause of death. I know we lost almost all the body hair we used to have but still, we usually wear clothes when under the sun.

comparing average lifespan of 30 to 80?

Re: The health benefits of better air

#267

Post by garmaine »

scotty79 wrote: post #221
garmaine wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you’re cooking, but there are many types of cuisine that simply need gas burners to be properly cooked.

Unless you are doing it on open flame I have no idea how that might be possible. Heat is heat.

Heat is not equally intense or similarly distributed between different stove types. Gas cooking delivers intense heat along a trajectory that follows the curve of the pan, and allows for thin pan materials with low heat capacity. The natural result of this is the wok, which cooks the best over a gas flame on high settings.

Want a restaurant-quality stir-fry? Your only choice is a wok on an intense gas plume. The thin material of the wok gives it low heat capacity, meaning that when you turn on the heat it rises in temperature very fast, and cools relatively fast when you turn it off. This allows very precise control necessary to get the best flavor. The wok is curved, which is critical to mixing ingredients correctly while cooking, but the gas flame does a fine job of following the form of the pan to give adequate heating throughout. Electric or induction stoves come short on both aspects: you need thicker pans (higher heat capacity) with flatter resistive elements built-in. You simply can't get the same flavor with those setups.

So no, it's not so simple as "heat is heat."

Pay attention to the kitchen next time you're in a Chinese or Thai restaurant. They really make use of the industrial gas-powered ranges that are universally equipped in their kitchens.

Re: The health benefits of better air

#268

Post by asaddhamani »

darkwater wrote: post #239
ehnto wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to point out how why this is a fairly nuanced topic, a shepherd may be breathing clean air but they're also exposed to UV radiation all day. They may have a higher morbidity due to increased skin cancer rates.

I'm no way an expert on the matter but by pure logic it's still amazes me how we survived (and evolved!) as a species for thousand of years without almost no shelter from direct sunlight and yet now (too much) sunlight exposure is seen as a cause of death. I know we lost almost all the body hair we used to have but still, we usually wear clothes when under the sun.

Why would sunlight cause us to lose hair but not other animals?

Re: The health benefits of better air

#269

Post by rob74 »

darkwater wrote: post #239
ehnto wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to point out how why this is a fairly nuanced topic, a shepherd may be breathing clean air but they're also exposed to UV radiation all day. They may have a higher morbidity due to increased skin cancer rates.

I'm no way an expert on the matter but by pure logic it's still amazes me how we survived (and evolved!) as a species for thousand of years without almost no shelter from direct sunlight and yet now (too much) sunlight exposure is seen as a cause of death. I know we lost almost all the body hair we used to have but still, we usually wear clothes when under the sun.

If the shepherd has kids before dying (of skin cancer or something else), it doesn't really make a difference for the survival of the species...
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