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Southern California just saw its longest streak of bad air in decades

latimes.com

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Re: Southern California just saw its longest streak of bad air in decades

#11

Post by Panino »

Reedx wrote: post #10
gascan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Masks help with particulate, which I think is Asia's core problem (from all the coal). But most bad-air US cities struggle with ozone, and I don't think masks help with that.

Would just note that it depends on the mask. They often have a large amount of leakage, and can give a false sense of security. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-airpollution-masks...

I notice an obvious and immediate improvement wearing a mask in Asia. And according to this article, the masks tested were effective in reducing the amount of pollution inhaled. "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

Re: Southern California just saw its longest streak of bad air in decades

#13

Post by BookmarkSaver »

lwb wrote: post #12

Isn't Seattle supposed to be way worse?

Seattle's was due to fires in surrounding regions. For whatever reason, smoke just accumulates in the Sound and lingers in the city, even for fires up in Canada. In LA, typically unless there is a fire in the immediate proximity, smoke doesn't really affect it that much. This article seems to be mostly about smog and ozone, rather than temporary air quality issues that don't really have a solution.

But yes, from what I've read, for a couple weeks last month, Seattle had the worst air quality in the world. And if you were here, you'd believe it.

Re: Southern California just saw its longest streak of bad air in decades

#15

Post by palcu »

gascan wrote: post #6
minimaxir wrote: post #3

A neat perk of iOS/watchOS 12 is that it now supports Air Quality in the Weather app/Siri, which has been very useful over the past few days!

Dang, would be nice if Android had more AQI built in. The 3rd party apps are not exactly rock solid.

I found the Plume app to have good information and a nice UI.

Re: Southern California just saw its longest streak of bad air in decades

#16

Post by xoa »

saagarjha wrote: post #4
minimaxir wrote: post #3

A neat perk of iOS/watchOS 12 is that it now supports Air Quality in the Weather app/Siri, which has been very useful over the past few days!

I think this may have been released earlier, since I think I remember this as being in iOS 11.

AFAIK an AQI feature was actually first introduced in iOS 10, but only for a very limited set of cities/geographic areas (only ones I heard named directly were in China, which of course is both a big market and has had horrendous air quality issues they've had to grapple with). I heard it briefly vanished in iOS 11.0 actually before being reintroduced in a point update. I never had cause to use it myself back then.

Presumably in iOS 12 the feature is both more refined and Apple has also just plain worked to get more access to the necessary data streams and integrate them. From a brief glance around at some weather related APIs I've played with before it doesn't seem like AQI data, particularly sufficiently granular, has the kind of global support that is simply universal for other more common measures. I guess as knowledge of the health effects of small PM pollution and such start to become more widely known by the public, combined with worsening climate making it more common/worse in new areas we'll see sensors and data streams for that improve worldwide, at least in urban areas.

Re: Southern California just saw its longest streak of bad air in decades

#17

Post by tomatsu »

j0e1 wrote: post #2

Looking outside of my window, I've seen the haze/fog/smog, but can't make out if it's because of polluted air or if it's just condensation- the kind you'd expect to see in high altitudes.

Devices for measuring the concentration of particulates (PM10, PM2.5, and maybe PM1.0), TVOC (total volatile organic compounds), and HCHO (formaldehyde) are fairly affordable nowadays. You could get one of those.

The air quality indoors is usually even worse than the air outside if you aren't using some filtration system. New-ish buildings release formaldehyde, laser printers release particulates and ozone, 3d printers release VOCs and particulates, and there is lots of dust generated by inhabitants and their pets.

Sadly, the Trump administration did a rollback of emission and fuel efficiency standards. It's a big step in the wrong direction.

Personally, I'd even ban combustion engines within city limits. It's completely insane that we poison the air we breathe 24/7.

Re: Southern California just saw its longest streak of bad air in decades

#19

Post by jedberg »

Theodores wrote: post #18

Can anyone summarise the article for those of us in Europe? We can't get the LA Times here. What has changed this year - wild fires? Or is it the problem of ten million cars pissing in the pool with no wind to clear the air. Do tell.

> We can't get the LA Times here.

You should let your MEP know how upset you are about that...

TL;DR: We don't know why exactly, but it's a bad sign and action should be taken. But it's only slightly out of normal for this time of year.

Re: Southern California just saw its longest streak of bad air in decades

#20

Post by specializeded »

Theodores wrote: post #18

Can anyone summarise the article for those of us in Europe? We can't get the LA Times here. What has changed this year - wild fires? Or is it the problem of ten million cars pissing in the pool with no wind to clear the air. Do tell.

I’d do just that but I’m not sure if it’s legal in Europe either ;)

Jokes, full article: https://outline.com/CrmCSK

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