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The health benefits of better air

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Re: The health benefits of better air

#21

Post by tehnub »

ahaucnx wrote: post #9

Thank you for this extensive resource on air quality. Yes, it needs to get more attention as it is one of the main drivers of mortality of environmental risks. One thing one has to bear in mind is that often when you optmize your home for low PM (e.g. with air purifiers and fixing of air leackage) your CO2 will get very high causing headaches and reduce cognitive performance. So it always makes sense for indoor air q…

In practice, how does one try to achieve a balance between CO2 and PM? Do you open the windows for a while when CO2 is up and PM is down, and then close them and run your purifiers when CO2 starts to go back down? Is it possible to keep both low with HEPA filters on the windows?

Re: The health benefits of better air

#22

Post by jostmey »

graeme wrote: post #15
jostmey wrote: post #7

I love this article. But the article misses the use of plants to improve air quality! HEPA air filters can't filter out nano-sized pollutants

Are they actually effective in anything but a sealed space shuttle? Nasa is the source of the plant air quality experiments people reference. In anything but that air exchange will happen much faster than a houseplant can grow. I love plants but I can’t imagine they do much unless you have an absolutely massive quantity.

HEPA filters cannot remove nanoparticles and ionizing filters ionize the air, and well, ozone is not good for us. So plants are far superior in this regard to air purifiers, which are useless

Re: The health benefits of better air

#23

Post by [deleted] »

eindiran wrote: post #6
jaytaylor wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvoted because I don't disagree. But... [Citation needed]

I'm not sure which claim you're looking for a citation for, but if it was the CO2 and cognition claim, then I have a few for you. This study made quite a few ripples when it came out: https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.1510037 > On average, cognitive scores were 61% higher on the Green building day and 101% higher on the two Green+ building days than on the Conventional building day (p There was also this one,…

[deleted]

Re: The health benefits of better air

#24

Post by gruez »

ahaucnx wrote: post #9

Thank you for this extensive resource on air quality. Yes, it needs to get more attention as it is one of the main drivers of mortality of environmental risks. One thing one has to bear in mind is that often when you optmize your home for low PM (e.g. with air purifiers and fixing of air leackage) your CO2 will get very high causing headaches and reduce cognitive performance. So it always makes sense for indoor air q…

Does the Senseair S8 actually measure co2, or is it inferred via VOC levels?

Re: The health benefits of better air

#25

Post by hettygreen »

I'm surprised "having a bonfire" isn't on this list, but I'm afraid to see how detrimental it might be.

The nostalgia factor is sort of wearing off now that I'm 40 and don't want my clothes to smell bad or have a low-key asthma attack. The last time I went camping in a campground and everyone had a fire going, the whole park was completely choked with smoke that it made going for a walk really crappy. It's such a weird activity, driving cars out to the woods to pay to burn dead trees.

Re: The health benefits of better air

#26

Post by PurpleFoxy »

briefcomment wrote: post #14

This is a good list. One other important thing to do if you can help it is to never live near a road. Any road, even infrequently driven on ones. If there's only one car per day on a road, but you live ten feet from it, and occasionally the wind blows the exhaust in your direction, you're breathing that in. Walls don't help. Live at least one mile in a straight line from highways.

Ironically, following this advice makes the problem even worse as you now require a car to do anything.

IMO, cities should just ban almost all car traffic from the centres so people can live car free without being poisoned.

Re: The health benefits of better air

#27

Post by hderms »

graeme wrote: post #15
jostmey wrote: post #7

I love this article. But the article misses the use of plants to improve air quality! HEPA air filters can't filter out nano-sized pollutants

Are they actually effective in anything but a sealed space shuttle? Nasa is the source of the plant air quality experiments people reference. In anything but that air exchange will happen much faster than a houseplant can grow. I love plants but I can’t imagine they do much unless you have an absolutely massive quantity.

Wish I could remember where I read it but the conclusion was that having indoor plants solely to increase air quality isn't a good idea. Obviously it's somewhat better than nothing but so minor as to be largely insignificant given how much air exchange there is with the outside world when you aren't on a shuttle

Re: The health benefits of better air

#28

Post by modeless »

I'm surprised this doesn't mention gas stoves and ovens. Gas is the "high end" option, yet creates totally unnecessary PM2.5 pollution in your home. Children growing up with gas stoves have higher rates of asthma.

Re: The health benefits of better air

#29

Post by briefcomment »

PurpleFoxy wrote: post #26
briefcomment wrote: post #14

This is a good list. One other important thing to do if you can help it is to never live near a road. Any road, even infrequently driven on ones. If there's only one car per day on a road, but you live ten feet from it, and occasionally the wind blows the exhaust in your direction, you're breathing that in. Walls don't help. Live at least one mile in a straight line from highways.

Ironically, following this advice makes the problem even worse as you now require a car to do anything. IMO, cities should just ban almost all car traffic from the centres so people can live car free without being poisoned.

That's a more ideal solution, but it's probably faster to move than for a city to make changes like that. You can try to stock up on food and grow crops to minimize driving.
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