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Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia

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Re: Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia

#51

Post by graeme »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #5
hattar wrote: post #2

What is going on with all the air pollution articles hitting HN this week? This is the 4th(?) I’ve seen in about 3 days. Any tech topic and I might not think about it, but air purification doesn’t really seem to be the kind of topic I’d expect to see so much here.

With the risk of coming across as an everything-is-an-ad kind of person, some of the previous posts I read have the following pattern: 1. Someone asks how can they measure air in their home/workplace 2. Followed by casual name dropping of CO2 sensors or air particle/quality sensors. No data to back this up just possibly too much aluminium wrapped around my head.

I left a bunch of comments in that vein yesterday. The thing is, you can’t answer the question of “how to measure air quality” withiut some sort of product. By contrast, if someone asks “how do I manage my time?” the answer can be free.

So if you use a naive filter you’ll be more suspicious of the one case but not the other. But the baseline probability of product mentions is way higher for domains that require products! You can see from my karma and general comment history though that I didn’t make an account to do this. I’ve had an account 8 years and am interested in air quality, to the puzzlement of my peers.

If there were new accounts repeatedly dropping the same products, that would be suspicious. Did that happen?

Re: Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia

#52

Post by xiphias2 »

jvanderbot wrote: post #16
siliconunit wrote: post #9

As far as anecdotes go, since I moved to London I noticed a sharp decrease in memory performance, heavy hair loss, and a general feeling of unhealthiness, developed a random persistent cough as well. The fact that you can always see a heavy haze even in short tube tunnels tells a lot on the air quality, the last underground cleaning train stopped working in the eighties...very unhealthy place to live/work in my opini…

I experienced patchy hair loss after moving to Los Angeles. This "childhood disease" does not run in my family, and I've never had it before. I'm 38 and moved here two years ago. I have come to suspect systemic inflation from the rampant pollution in LA caused my new autoimmune disease, or at worst exacerbated a condition I never experienced symptoms of before.

Are you sure it's an autoimmune disease? For me when I went to uninhabited islands for example, the symptoms of my illness went away completely.

I believe the problem is that my body is not able to metabolize the toxic air molecules that gets to my bloodstream through my lungs.

Re: Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia

#53

Post by felipemnoa »

2Ccltvcm wrote: post #29
deevolution wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hopefully non autonomous driving becomes illegal. Its a lethal weapon and we shouldnt be trusting humans with cars

We should all just become vegetables plugged into the matrix so we can't possibly hurt ourselves or others. We would be valuable vassals providing energy to our overlords. I can't wait for your future.

>>providing energy to our overlords

The Matrix AI robots do not really need humans to survive. They had a form of fusion. In reality the reason why they created the symbiotic relationship was as a kindness to their human supporters so that the human race would not go extinct.

Re: Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia

#54

Post by frenchy »

yoz-y wrote: post #18
netwanderer3 wrote: post #13

According to the evolution theory, eventually our DNA will evolve to adapt to its external environment so does this mean given enough daily exposure over many generations, at some time in a distant future our immune system will no longer consider those particles as foreign and thus will not fight to eliminate it? There would be no dementia by then if it was indeed caused by inflammation triggered by the immune system…

As far as I understand it, evolution only really happens if the survival of the fittest principle also applies. Modern science does good job keeping people who would otherwise could not survive alive. I think that the answer to get rid of allergies will come from science rather than the natural process. (If ever)

Not just that, evolution is more about reproduction of the fittest, than survival of the fittest. Any health effects that don't manifest until 40 or later aren't likely to have much influence on evolution.

Re: Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia

#55

Post by kleer001 »

netwanderer3 wrote: post #13

According to the evolution theory, eventually our DNA will evolve to adapt to its external environment so does this mean given enough daily exposure over many generations, at some time in a distant future our immune system will no longer consider those particles as foreign and thus will not fight to eliminate it? There would be no dementia by then if it was indeed caused by inflammation triggered by the immune system…

A slight hair splitting here with your phrasing.

You've got it backwards. DNA doesn't "evolve to addapt". Variations get copied and passed down except for those within individuals that didn't reproduce. Sometimes an entire lineage doesn't reproduce, that's extinction. So, there's no "eventually".

Our bodies may not be "fully" understood. But there's no points for an argument from ignorance.

Still there may be people that live to 90 without getting dementia in heavily polluted cities. However, that's down to natural variation.

Re: Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia

#56

Post by frenchy »

agumonkey wrote: post #22
netwanderer3 wrote: post #13

According to the evolution theory, eventually our DNA will evolve to adapt to its external environment so does this mean given enough daily exposure over many generations, at some time in a distant future our immune system will no longer consider those particles as foreign and thus will not fight to eliminate it? There would be no dementia by then if it was indeed caused by inflammation triggered by the immune system…

Should I move near Chernobyl ?

It depends how near. I've read that living in the outer parts of the exclusion zone is likely to reduce your lifespan by a week or two. Depending on the city, that actually might be an improvement.

Re: Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia

#57

Post by core-questions »

veritas_veritad wrote: post #30
2Ccltvcm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should all just become vegetables plugged into the matrix so we can't possibly hurt ourselves or others. We would be valuable vassals providing energy to our overlords. I can't wait for your future.

false dichotomy- there exists a world in which cars are not the normal mode of transportation because everything you could possibly want is within walking distance and intra-city travel is something you do only occasionally.

I couldn't possibly want to leave the city, drive down a logging road, tour around, and enjoy my personal freedom, right? Why would anyone want that, when someone might possibly have a small chance of dying because of it?

Re: Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia

#58

Post by mensetmanusman »

siliconunit wrote: post #9

As far as anecdotes go, since I moved to London I noticed a sharp decrease in memory performance, heavy hair loss, and a general feeling of unhealthiness, developed a random persistent cough as well. The fact that you can always see a heavy haze even in short tube tunnels tells a lot on the air quality, the last underground cleaning train stopped working in the eighties...very unhealthy place to live/work in my opini…

I highly recommend watching The Crown episode on the London Fog. It is amazing to hear the story of London pollution.

I use a 3M room filter for white noise generation for my kids. Has worked very well for 7 years! (I believe I got asthma growing up around dust).

Re: Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia

#59

Post by dajohnson89 »

siliconunit wrote: post #9

As far as anecdotes go, since I moved to London I noticed a sharp decrease in memory performance, heavy hair loss, and a general feeling of unhealthiness, developed a random persistent cough as well. The fact that you can always see a heavy haze even in short tube tunnels tells a lot on the air quality, the last underground cleaning train stopped working in the eighties...very unhealthy place to live/work in my opini…

i wonder how nyc pollution compares.

Re: Air Pollution Seems to Cause Dementia

#60

Post by mensetmanusman »

hattar wrote: post #2

What is going on with all the air pollution articles hitting HN this week? This is the 4th(?) I’ve seen in about 3 days. Any tech topic and I might not think about it, but air purification doesn’t really seem to be the kind of topic I’d expect to see so much here.

I wonder what the population of HN lurkers is that views the website <3 times per week. For them, this is all new.
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