As a respiratory therapist in the US performing the same type of lung function and capacity tests this article speaks about, I find this research and journalism is so valuable to society! I have seen so many awlful situations with kids during poor air quality times. The lungs and respiratory track are exposed to the outside air. We simply are not designed to breathe particulate matter or emissions. Their lungs and alveoli are actively growing. Children breathe more rapidly than adults.When ultrafine particles and emissions bypass the upper airway defenses, they lodge deep in the lower respiratory tract, triggering acute inflammatory responses which can lead to deaths. I never want this to happen to anyones children. So many bad things in the world right now but seeing this made me smile today.
Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
371–380 of 426 posts
Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
#372Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
#373Earlier quoted context omitted.
Living very close to busy highways is known to generate poor air quality. I recommend anyone in those locations buy an air purifier for their kids' rooms. I bought a couple reasonably priced HEPA purifiers and I change the filters on schedule. Replacement HEPA filters are very cheap. Also watch out for things that we do indoors that can generate bad air quality. I had a friend who bought a VOC meter and noticed very…
HEPA filters are counterproductive in standard air purifiers. Air purifiers pump their cleaned air directly into the dirty air of the room. It doesn't matter if that cleaned air is extremely clean, because it's immediately mixed with dirty air. What actually matters is how much clean air you produce: the "clean air delivery rate" (CADR). The more effective the filter the more it restricts airflow. If a filter is only…
The average person isn't going to have a clean-room setup and we're not looking for perfect here just marginally better when it comes to a bedroom.
If you put a standard sized air purifier with a HEPA filter in it into a room it will absolutely lower the dirty air of the room. Because over time you're lowering the particle count.
If I turn my air purifier on in my room even with the door open the air quality sensors improve their readings quite dramatically.
Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
#374You can reasonably calculate the deaths caused by VW's diesel gate. We did that to ourselves.
https://energyandcleanair.org/publication/health-impacts-of-...
Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
#375Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
#376China 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...
> China has 350 million electric two-wheelers, 20 million EVs.
And yet they have the most coal plants, and the most coal plants under construction. This comparison includes India.
This is PM2.5 map of Beijing today: https://earth.nullschool.net/#2026/08/20/0200Z/particulates/...
This is London: https://earth.nullschool.net/#2026/08/20/0200Z/particulates/...
This is East USA: https://earth.nullschool.net/#2026/08/20/0200Z/particulates/...
They are not even close.
For the kicks, here is Delhi today: https://earth.nullschool.net/#2026/08/20/0200Z/particulates/...
Also lower than Beijing. (There's a hotspot to the west of Delhi due to wildfires.)
Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm having trouble envisioning that. Yeah that seems to be the general problem here. Electric car champions and city dwellers living in a bubble.
City dwellers are the ones that use public land to store their cars. Of the three Villages I know well (my sisters, the one I lived in until moving to a larger 8000 person town, and the one with the primary school) I can’t think of any Likewise the tiny hamlets I drove through on the way to school didn’t have people parking on the road, there’s simply no room. You occasionally get delivery vehicles stop and it causes…
I'm thinking mostly of eg terraced streets in villages and towns. Similar to cities in that there tends to be a single space for parking on the street but multiple car owners per house on average.
Different to cities in that there isn't remotely the public transport infrastructure to support getting rid of cars, or the private facility to support electric overnight charging for the longer distance car-commuting etc that isn't generally needed if you live in cities.
Things are improving with technological advance but - again - not everybody can afford those advances and the latest models.
It's a completely different lifestyle living in those sorts of places in some respects.
Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
#378China 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...
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Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
It currently takes so long to deploy nuclear in the West, because the West mostly dismantled the nuclear supply chains, starting in 1990s. At that time coal and gas power plants were seen as better than nuclear power plants and no expansion of nuclear energy was expected. For example Germany was still building new coal power plants in 2005-2007. https://energytransition.org/2016/10/germanys-last-new-coal-... https://…
China builds more renewables per month than the nuclear target they’ve very slowly expanded over a half decade and aren’t scheduled to reach until at least 2030. 70% of China’s electric generating capacity will be renewables by 2027. You could replace current global nuclear generating capacity at parity with capacity factor with batteries and solar in under two years. Lazard Levelized Cost of Energy+ 2026 - https://w…
China builds more new coal power to combine with renewables than any country in the world. With all implications for air quality, but the new coal development is concetrated away from most big cities, so air quality is slowly getting better in big cities.
"Operating coal power capacity in China has increased 44% since the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015."
"1,270 GW operating coal power capacity"
"533 GW coal power capacity"
https://globalenergymonitor.org/projects/global-coal-plant-t...
" Many of China's renewables-rich regions are also major coal-producing areas. While renewable development creates opportunities for economic diversification and industrial transformation, it can also provide a new rationale for expanding coal-based industries. The coal-to-chemicals sector illustrates this risk.
According to new GEM research, all coal-to-olefins projects currently under construction in China’s northwestern and northern regions include planned associated green hydrogen facilities, as regulators increasingly require renewable integration as a condition for project approval. However, in many cases, the renewable component represents only a small fraction of overall energy use."
https://globalenergymonitor.org/research/chinas-wind-and-sol...
China currently builds cheapest possible energy system based on renewables backed by coal power instead of expensive energy system based on nuclear energy.
Re: Children's stunted lungs show recovery in ultra low emission zone
#380China 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...
> China has 350 million electric two-wheelers, 20 million EVs. And yet they have the most coal plants, and the most coal plants under construction. This comparison includes India. This is PM2.5 map of Beijing today: https://earth.nullschool.net/#2026/08/20/0200Z/particulates/... This is London: https://earth.nullschool.net/#2026/08/20/0200Z/particulates/... This is East USA: https://earth.nullschool.net/#2026/08/20/0…
Those electric 2, 3 and 4 wheelers and electric busses even if powered by coal fired electricity, will do less damage to city dwelling kids lungs than traditional engines would.
And if the trend of China cleaning up their electricity supply continues (they just slipped under 50% coal) then even existing EVs will get cleaner every year with less pollution created at distant powerplants.