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Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

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Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#101

Post by jodrellblank »

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.

This has been on HN before[1], https://dynomight.net/air/ arguing that "Better air quality is the easiest way not to die":

"While most things that clearly improve health are well known, one is insanely underrated: Fixing your air. I suspect this is often the most effective health intervention, period. Nothing else is so important while also being so easy to address."

[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#102

Post by aidenn0 »

jahewson wrote: post #42
aidenn0 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"running the A/C," presupposes that the house has A/C. When a wildfire is near, I close up the house and run air-filters, but it can hit 100F inside in the afternoons.

Actually it doesn’t have to be A/C. If you have central air then you have a HEPA filter so just run the system’s fan.

Yes, I have no problems with the particulates, it's the temperature that's the problem with the windows closed.

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#103

Post by lsllc »

During the pandemic, the air quality here in eastern Massachusetts was profoundly better. So much so that if you were outside and one of the very occasional cars drove by, the fumes were quite noticeable. Now that we're back to normal levels of traffic, I don't particularly notice the pollution anymore when I'm outside.

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#104

Post by m463 »

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.

People in the US are not against pollution.

However I don't think people know where the pollution comes from. I personally think smog was ONLY tackled because people could SEE it. Nowadays I think there might be more harmful pollution from car tires and jets flying overhead than tailpipes.

also regulatory capture is a thing, and has a high ROI for big polluters.

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#105

Post by maxbond »

fragmede wrote: post #93
maxbond wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. I've reread the comment and it can be read either way. Worst case scenario is that my comment remains correct but tone deaf, so I'm not going to retract it, but am open to a correction if GGP chooses to offer one.

Factories have done unmeasurable damage to our ecosystem, that is unequivocable. But we had to rename it climate change because people couldn't get over the phrase global warming whenever it was cold so I don't see "Reduce Pollution!" as a winning slogan. People who care, care about the underlying concept no matter what it's called. People who don't care don't believe it's a problem in the first place and won't do an…

Well, I disagree with the cynicism (as I believe people are caring more & more) but my bad on misinterpreting.

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#106

Post by waldothedog »

rgmerk wrote: post #87
WalterBright wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost incentives work. It's why people buy cars that get more mpg. Why wouldn't they prefer to buy a car that engenders a lower pollution tax?

If by “people” you mean “Americans”, they buy F-150s to go to the grocery store, and they vote out governments that threaten their ability to do so. Taxing pollution, particularly consumer-facing taxes, has a long history of political failure, whereas subsidising clean technology has a long history of political and technical success.

*F-250

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#107

Post by bsder »

warmwaffles wrote: post #90
bsder wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blaming the EPA for an incident that happened at a horribly toxic mine is like blaming your doctor for your gall bladder exploding while it was being removed for being infectious. The EPA is in charge of these horrible mines because the previous owners abandoned them to destroy the environment after the profitable stuff was pulled out of the ground.

Cool, so absolve the EPA of any wrong doing?

No. But that specific failure is not an inherent indictment of the mission of the EPA, itself.

That mine is an environmental disaster. Some entity needs to be tasked with containing it or mitigating it--doing nothing is NOT an option. That failure could have occurred whether the mine was under the auspices of the EPA, the Department of the Interior, or the Army Corps of Engineers.

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#108

Post by manwe150 »

Aeolun wrote: post #58
newsclues wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a bike riding hippie in the age of video meetings and streaming, explain to me why the world elite need to fly all over the world in private jets to discuss climate change? Can you tell me why my grocery store stopped giving out free plastic bags by charging for them, and now phasing them out for paper, but they still sell plastic garbage bags and I can't reuse the grocery store bag for my garbage bag now? Can you…

> but they still sell plastic garbage bags You ever tried to put the drippy nasty stuff in a paper trash bag?

My understanding was that it is not about the bag, but where it tends to end up afterwards. Trash bags mostly end up in landfills, where they do no harm. Grocery bags by contrast have a higher tendency to be mis-identified as recyclable and then get caught by the wind and blown somewhere bad.

Re: Decades of air pollution undermine the immune system

#109

Post by brnt »

Aeolun wrote: post #58
newsclues wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a bike riding hippie in the age of video meetings and streaming, explain to me why the world elite need to fly all over the world in private jets to discuss climate change? Can you tell me why my grocery store stopped giving out free plastic bags by charging for them, and now phasing them out for paper, but they still sell plastic garbage bags and I can't reuse the grocery store bag for my garbage bag now? Can you…

> but they still sell plastic garbage bags You ever tried to put the drippy nasty stuff in a paper trash bag?

I agree completely with the point here, but why are you buying drippy nasty stuff?
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