For those who are worried about indoor air pollution like me, I found out thanks to this [dynomight post](https://dynomight.net/ikea-purifier/) that having an efficient air purifier is a low bar and is actually quite accessible to poor people like me !
Where does air pollution come from?
121–130 of 146 posts
Re: Where does air pollution come from?
#122Does anyone have advice for how to balance air purification with CO2 levels? My apartment will sit at around 1200 PPM if the windows are closed, but if they are open I would think running a purifier does nothing.
Re: Where does air pollution come from?
#123For those who are worried about indoor air pollution like me, I found out thanks to this [dynomight post]( https://dynomight.net/ikea-purifier/ ) that having an efficient air purifier is a low bar and is actually quite accessible to poor people like me !
Even cheaper is the DIY Corsi-Rosenthal box. We make a couple every few months and it does make a huge difference! Worked wonders during the wildfires a couple of years ago
Re: Where does air pollution come from?
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cruise ships certainly used to moore up in the Greenwich stretch of the river at the and a few years ago there was quite a lot of coverage of the issue around it. Cruise ships require a lot of power while docked, and unless they connect to the grid they used to create a lot of air quality issues. If there are a lot less docking then that's great, but there do still seem to be a number that dock there https://blackhea…
Thanks, I didn't know that was a thing. Still it's 3 to 4 cruise ships a month according to that article and, while probably hugely dirty, I would be surprised if the asthma rates of kids in affluent Greenwich and Blackheath are among "the highest in London" because of this.
It's a big issue there but it's very localised to that specific area (which is itself in the bottom 25% of areas in the UK). They are like having a whole load of idling lorries sat near your house all at the same time, normally for several days at a time. And all of that is on top of the general level of pollution from being in the centre of London. I'm going from a documentary and a couple of article from a few years ago, which I should try and find.
Hopefully with all the work on both improving the fuel used, and providing grid hookups so they can turn their engines off, that will have made a big difference. Hopefully the effects of the congestion charges have made a big difference too. A lot of the kids featured in the documentary had a really crap life because of it all.
Re: Where does air pollution come from?
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Asia has about 4.8B population, Australia has 26M. On a per capita basis Australia has about 1x% more deaths
> Asia has about 4.8B population, Australia has 26M. On a per capita basis Australia has about 1x% more deaths 6.3e6/4.8e9 = 0.00131 4e3/26e6 = 0.00015 About 9x as bad? Not sure about 1x%, was that 1% worse? I am sorry I might have misunderstood that.
I meant 11-19%, did mental maths so I did not want to specify exact value.
Though my maths seems to be wrong as well!
Re: Where does air pollution come from?
#126For those who are worried about indoor air pollution like me, I found out thanks to this [dynomight post]( https://dynomight.net/ikea-purifier/ ) that having an efficient air purifier is a low bar and is actually quite accessible to poor people like me !
I ended up purchasing a Lasko Air Flex[1]. It fits standard HVAC filters. It doubles as a white noise machine for me, it is quite loud. This review[2] indicates it works well but a bit power hungry, and it definitely gathered a visible amount of dust over a 1 year period.
[1] https://lasko.com/products/lasko-air-flex-2-in-1-20-inch-box...
Re: Where does air pollution come from?
#127Perhaps the most surprising sources of particular matter is... sea spray. As water crashes around, stuff in the water (e.g. salt) often ends up suspended in the air. This apparently contributes a non-negligible percentage of PM2.5 matter in coastal areas, though exact percentages are hard to come by.
While I’m quite concerned about particulates generally (I use a few HEPA air purifiers around the house etc.), with this kind of thing it does feel like that kind of matter can’t be as bad for you as other types of PM2.5. I haven’t yet seen any research quantifying it (most studies just look at all PM2.5 as a single category) but surely there must be a difference about how bad different types of particulates are depe…
Most definitely different types of particles cause different levels of harm. (Extreme example: asbestos.) However, we don't really have good data to quantify this. It intuitive from evolutionary perspective that "natural" sources would be less harmful since we've been breathing sea spray and dust for millions of years. Yet, smoke from wood fires is clearly still extremely harmful. So... my instinct is that the harm is probably less, but I find it very hard to be confident that any particular source is totally safe.
Re: Where does air pollution come from?
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
Asia has about 4.8B population, Australia has 26M. On a per capita basis Australia has about 1x% more deaths
> Asia has about 4.8B population, Australia has 26M. On a per capita basis Australia has about 1x% more deaths 6.3e6/4.8e9 = 0.00131 4e3/26e6 = 0.00015 About 9x as bad? Not sure about 1x%, was that 1% worse? I am sorry I might have misunderstood that.
1x% to me would mean between 10% and 19% inclusive.
Re: Where does air pollution come from?
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
The top ten countries by air pollution listed in another comment hardly produce anything the developed world uses, they mostly export natural resources.
That top 10 was for childhood deaths from air pollution per capita and included mostly poor nations with less healthcare. When you look at consumption based accounting for e.g. CO2, the list is very different, namely for 2022: !. Singapore 2. United Arab Emirates 3. Qatar 4. Saudi Arabia 5. Kuwait 6. Brunei 7. Malta 8. Belgium 9. United States 10. Oman source: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/consumption-co2-per-ca…
Very surprised to see Belgium in that list. What gives? Our electricity mix isn't too bad. We don't have much heavy industry. We're not heavy A/C users. Is it our meat consumption?
Re: Where does air pollution come from?
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Percentage wise absolutely, said beach can have 99% less pollution. but in absolute terms, pollution is so high in that street that even 1% of said beach pollution (which is already 1% of street) is already out of bounds of limits considered safe. Blue "haze" is pollution, not fog (water vapor). Look, people do not understand scale, one motorcycle/lawnmower can have emissions of 300 cars equipped with catalytic conve…
electric cars do not have emissions, true, but generating the electricity to power them does generate emmissions. Also, electric cars are heavier. This means not only higher tire pollution, but also they are inherently less fuel efficient. electric bikes, on the other hand,
can you generate electricity without emissions, YES.
can you burn anything in air without emissions, NO.
for me it is easy logic.
fossil cars are literally literally killing people. and live people is what capitalist needs to buy his products. so fossil cars are anti capitalistic.