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Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

cuimc.columbia.edu

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Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#11

Post by Syonyk »

I'm not surprised. Our modern air is... poor, and that's before you get into fire season and such out west.

I've started being far more aggressive with air filtration in the house and my office. Get an air quality monitor that shows you PM2.5 and PM10, you'll be horrified by how high those levels are often enough. I've been using "filter boxes" for the most part (a 3-4 furnace filter box around a box fan or similar) and they do a great job of pulling the PM out of the air.

I can fairly regularly keep PM in the sub-5 ug/m^3 range, even during smoke season - though it's a lot of airflow through the filters.

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#14

Post by disantlor »

acabal wrote: post #6

The pictures of those lymph nodes are shocking. In the Methods section, they state that > LN tissues were obtained from [...] LiveOnNY, the local organ procurement organization for the New York metropolitan area. which makes it sound like the samples came from residents of NYC. NYC air quality probably isn't great , but those lymph nodes looked so bad that I assumed they must have come from a hyperpolluted megacity l…

Not to mention drivers (in NYC at least) behaving like entitled psychopaths, honking like crazy the second they are delayed going down a side street at 7am

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#15

Post by Syonyk »

pharmakom wrote: post #4

Future generations will look back in horror at our air quality in the same way that we look back at medieval sewer systems

I expect their reactions to basically all of our modern society to be "disgust." Our air, our water, our environment, our attention ecosystems. All quite human-toxic.

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#16

Post by njarboe »

milesskorpen wrote: post #7
dagmx wrote: post #2

Anecdotally, moving from India to North America really helped my health. I know this study is about long term effects but I believe even short term , it’s quite noticeable. It’s why I find it perplexing why so many people in the US want to do away with EPA regulations. Not only was pollution rampant in many Americans lifetimes, it’s completely observable how bad pollution is elsewhere in the world for people.

I think it is in large part because people don't appreciate how much worse it could be. The EPA has been so successful we've become complacent.

Other would say, "The EPA has been so successful, to keep their budget growing, they have become overzealous."

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#17

Post by njarboe »

photon12 wrote: post #10

I have a friend who lives in an apartment near a major, major artery in Seattle. It's 6 lanes wide looking out from the balcony directly down onto the street. It's what they can afford in a somewhat close commute to work by bus (they can't afford a car). I lived in an apartment a block from I-5 for 6 years. I've made enough money to buy a house in a neighborhood away from traffic pollution. It was a major part of my…

It might be a bit because of the density, but housing is mainly cheaper near busy roads mainly because most people would prefer to live elsewhere, just like you.

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#18

Post by jrussino »

ldh0011 wrote: post #5
dagmx wrote: post #2

Anecdotally, moving from India to North America really helped my health. I know this study is about long term effects but I believe even short term , it’s quite noticeable. It’s why I find it perplexing why so many people in the US want to do away with EPA regulations. Not only was pollution rampant in many Americans lifetimes, it’s completely observable how bad pollution is elsewhere in the world for people.

On a tangentially related note, it confuses me why so many people seem to think that the only reason to do away with fossil fuels as much as possible is climate change. Millions die prematurely from air pollution every year. Even if climate change was fake we should still be trying to use cleaner energy.

"What if it's a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_if_it%27s_a_big_hoax_an...

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#19

Post by borissk »

ldh0011 wrote: post #5
dagmx wrote: post #2

Anecdotally, moving from India to North America really helped my health. I know this study is about long term effects but I believe even short term , it’s quite noticeable. It’s why I find it perplexing why so many people in the US want to do away with EPA regulations. Not only was pollution rampant in many Americans lifetimes, it’s completely observable how bad pollution is elsewhere in the world for people.

On a tangentially related note, it confuses me why so many people seem to think that the only reason to do away with fossil fuels as much as possible is climate change. Millions die prematurely from air pollution every year. Even if climate change was fake we should still be trying to use cleaner energy.

No post body was provided.

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#20

Post by borissk »

pharmakom wrote: post #4

Future generations will look back in horror at our air quality in the same way that we look back at medieval sewer systems

You're an optimist - if we end up with a nuclear war (which was avoided a few times by pure accident) or runaway global warming, future generations, if any, may think of current times as a golden age...
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