Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 426 posts

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#321

Post by kazinator »

thelastgallon wrote: post #261
thelastgallon wrote: post #212

China has 350 million electric two-wheelers, 20 million EVs. China reduced air pollution from transportation by 80% in a decade. Delhi: 442. Lahore: 334. Beijing: 16. These are the levels of PM 2.5, one of the principle measures for air pollution, on November 19. How China cleaned up its air pollution – and what that meant for the climate: https://theconversation.com/how-china-cleaned-up-its-air-pol...

Outdoor pollution ---> Use these for transportation: walk, bicycle, e-scooters, public transit, electric 2 wheeler, EV Indoor pollution ---> Use these for cooking (induction, electric resistance) stove, heatpump waterheater and furnace for HVAC Would also be nice to do: stop using coal, gas power plants. These are usually farther out from cities and probably not the most urgent. (except when Elon Musk or new DCs deci…

Indoor pollution --> open a window or two

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#322

Post by Aeolun »

noelwelsh wrote: post #127
Aeolun wrote: post #113

Scientists stunned healthy living is healthy?

Pointless anti-intellectualism. There is a big difference between believing something is true, and demonstrating it is true and measuring the effect. One is a vibe. The other can drive policy.

Kind of, but there’s a lot of ‘water is wet’ studies, and this falls firmly in the ‘why the hell are you surprised by this?!’ category.

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#323

Post by bryanlarsen »

dave7 wrote: post #66
bryanlarsen wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smokers don't magically undo the damage they did to their lungs after they stop smoking. Stunned might be hyperbole, but it is at least a little bit surprising.

They absolutely do! Not all the way, but if you'd have smoked a pack a day for 15 years and then have given up for the last 15, there's absolutely no way you'd be saying this!

My Dad stopped smoking for 20 years and then died from long cancer.

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#324

Post by vincnetas »

Aurornis wrote: post #269
vincnetas wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what a nice externality example "I recommend anyone in those locations buy an air purifier for their kids' rooms" I drive the car, you buy the purifier.

What’s your suggestion? Just sit there and be angry that transportation exists? You don’t think the parent commenter is also using transportation? The pollution from transport also occurs with trains, buses, and any other vehicle that has wheels, brakes, or moves fast enough to stir up the air and kick particulates into the air. People do what they can and control what’s within their reach.

So to give you other example. You live and nearby opens a chemical plant and starts smelling, so you just buy gas mask and hazmat suit or start complaining?

And yes other means of transport also does pollute, but amount is is critical here. You need much less public transport than you need individual cars.

I perfectly understand that there is no quick solution (only quick patch with air purifier) so thats why we should not normalise this and remember to complain (after buying air purifier)

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#325

Post by foobarian »

simonsquiff wrote: post #51
XorNot wrote: post #5

So punchline, probably a good idea to electrify all the cars yeah?

100%, and not just due to no emissions / minimal break dust. The noise reduction is a massive dividend. I used to live in london 10+ years ago, and when I come back I’m stunned by the noise difference, it really is so much quieter especially in central london. EVs everywhere especially replacing the horribly noisy diesel black cabs and buses. Very noticeably different and much more pleasant, and improving all the tim…

Too bad the tire particulates likely get worse, both because EVs are heavy, and because they have more low-end torque and encourage driving that leads to more tire wear. I don't have sources but it's my educated guess from recent experience with a few EVs

But I'll take it if diesels and two-strokes will die in a fire

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#326

Post by Retric »

throwway120385 wrote: post #274
Retric wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it’s not obvious to most customers that a corner’s been cut. Same reason most new construction in the US sucks. You can safely put a washer and dryer on the upper floor of a house if you add a proper floor drain, but you’re unlikely to see anyone add a floor drain in new construction because buyers aren’t looking for it. Now multiply that by everything a buyer isn’t looking for and you’re talking real money.

What brand of washer do you use so I can studiously avoid it?

If the seal between the washing machine and the water supply fails it doesn’t matter which brand you’re using.

They have improved over time, but you need to have a drain for the washing machine anyway so the cost is quite low vs the rather extreme damage a leak can cause.

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#328

Post by mellosouls »

hdgvhicv wrote: post #180
mellosouls wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably a much better idea first to have a decent public transport and electric car support network throughout the country first. We don't all live in the city.

And those of us who don’t can just plug in at home.

Except for the many many people who don't have off street parking.

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#329

Post by mh- »

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #319
Aurornis wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't matter if that cleaned air is extremely clean, because it's immediately mixed with dirty air What matters is the gradual removal of particles from the air. The HEPA purifiers I have move enough air that everything gets scrubbed. It works. My house has a separate central air system with a non-HEPA air filter with a decent MERV rating for the bulk filtering. The HEPA air purifiers do the scrubbing of finer…

Maybe overthink it a bit? I'm skeptical about the big picture. You have an air purifier in your kid's room. If this is a fairly large apartment or a house, and you have central air running, how much purer is the air in that room? If your central air system is modern and continuously circulates air throughout the house at a low fan speed, you're effectively trying to purify your whole house with that low-output room-s…

(Not the person you replied to, but offering an anecdote)

There are ton of variables here. One is where the return air intake is. My house only has a single return air vent in the hallway on a 10' ceiling (the furnace is directly above that in the attic). I think this is not-uncommon in the western US.

I have a room-sized purifier in each room on the floor, and they accumulate considerable dust. What I don't know is how much of that would have been successfully pulled out into the hallway, if I didn't have the vacuum of the purifier.

This is impossible for me to A/B test meaningfully given all the environmental variables - wind (house isn't airtight, wind pushes into leaks harder), wind direction (wind from the desert brings sand and other small particles), humidity, etc.

If anyone has reading material on properly controlled experiments in this regard it'd be really interesting to see. I honestly don't know if they're more effective than disabling them and allowing the central HVAC a chance to pick it up sans airflow-tug-of-war. My hunch is it's not worse, though I have no expertise here.

Long-winded post but I'll close with an anecdote: when we had those wildfires in the Bay Area back during covid, they were absolutely more effective at getting the soot and smell out of all of our rooms than the status quo.

edit: One thing to be aware of if someone is evaluating these, all of the claimed numbers from manufacturers are based on you running the air purifier on the absolute highest speed it offers. Almost no one actually does this in on these consumer grade freestanding ones, especially in bedrooms, because they're quite loud.

Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone

#330

Post by roryirvine »

briandear wrote: post #284

How about chopping down all of the London Plane trees next? Absolutely disastrous for public health. They are also all over Barcelona and cause nothing but respiratory misery. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/04/scourge-of-londo...

Ugh, yes. They trigger my hay fever almost as soon as they start budding, a good month before pollen season kicks off properly.
Post reply on HN