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High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half – study

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Re: High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half – study

#51

Post by colinb »

lm28469 wrote: post #45
colinb wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One more reason to look to an electrically heated future. Where I live the air becomes unpleasant in winter as some neighbours heat their homes by burning what i can only assume are old tires and horse carcasses.

Burning clean dry wood in a modern well maintained wood stove is surprisingly efficient and relatively clean (+ renewable) Of course if you burn trash none of that matters, but it's already illegal in pretty much any advanced societies.

oh, it's illegal where I live. But some people pretty clearly ignore that. Enforcement doesn't seem to be a thing. I think this is one of those laws that falls into the category of things that we just have to rely on people's good will to carry out. Like small-time littering and not cleaning up after your dog, some people just don't seem to care.

FWIW, I think - based on not feeling my throat close up most of the time - that the number of people who do this is small.

Re: High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half – study

#52

Post by deadbabe »

ck2 wrote: post #46

I am hoping by the end of the decade smartphones start having pm2.5 and co2 sensors built-in and then next decade smartwatches Once EVERYONE starts seeing air-quality on their phones every hour of the day everywhere they are, they will start to care and then eventually, maybe do something about the politics to improve air-quality Imagine the game-changer if air-quality was in the next iPhone They already make sensors…

There’s no need really, you can already download air quality data from dedicated sensor towers.

Re: High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half – study

#53

Post by labcomputer »

unglaublich wrote: post #29
qprofyeh wrote: post #24

If you have ever been to a city that has banned fossil fuels then you can absolutely tell the difference, to most of the overpopulated European cities that I have visited. It’s astonishing how peaceful and comfortable it is to run or even stroll when every breath is just 100% refreshing; you feel 10 pounds lighter. Meanwhile the blackened filter of our home HVAC needs replacement again… and allergies.

Sadly, fossil fuel (pollution) has been marketed as a masculine culture thing now. In the free (=individualistic) West, I expect it to stick around for at least another 50 years.

I expect less than 10. Once you drive an EV, every big noisy diesel feels impotent and gutless. Kind of like a small yappy dog that’s all bark and no bite. There’s just nothing like the zero-lag gut-punching acceleration of an EV.

Re: High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half – study

#54

Post by gbear605 »

homebrewer wrote: post #50
PaulKeeble wrote: post #42

Almost all of the problem is PM2.5 but its not the only pollution problem. For PM2.5 a simple N95/FFP2 mask will drop the particles you breath in to basically zero and remove the health consequences of them and as we saw in 2020-2021 you can happily run in them they don't restrict breathing much at all. You do not have to put up with the damage from polluted air alongside the exercise.

Respirators can't do anything about volatile components that have low boiling points: sulfur and nitrogen oxides, hundreds of often carcinogenic aromatic hydrocarbons released by burning any organic matter. If you wear a good FFP3 respirator in heavily polluted air, it's very noticeable that it doesn't filter out everything — the smell gets through. And it's a specific smell, reminds me of walking through charred rui…

I had a notable experience at a church sometime during COVID, where I was wearing an N95 mask. The church’s incense could be smelt partially through the mask, and the scent that made it through was much worse than the combined scent that you normally smell.

Re: High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half – study

#55

Post by ungreased0675 »

unglaublich wrote: post #31
ozim wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exhaust fumes were easy to optimize. Lots of particles cars emit are from tires and break pads. I think someone was measuring that but I don’t have sources but most likely I read that somewhere in the comments of HN.

One good thing about electric vehicles is that regenerative breaking effectively eradicates brake pad use and pollution. Only tire dust remains significant.

If we could incentivize small, lightweight electric vehicles over the current trend of large (heavy) luxury vehicles, there would be a lot of benefits. I’d like a trend towards “easy and safe motorcycle” instead of our current “living room that moves itself.”

Re: High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half – study

#56

Post by dahart »

kqr wrote: post #18

I want to pull two quotes from the article. > “Our findings emphasise that exercise remains beneficial even in polluted environments,” lead researcher Professor Po-Wen Ku said in a statement. [...] “We don’t want to discourage people from exercising outdoors,” said Co-author Professor Paola Zaninotto. The health effects of exercise outdoors are combined from two effects: - Positive effects due to exercise. These star…

Like I totally agree with encouraging exercise most places, but let’s be careful to not understate the risks of pollution. The paper states that above 35μg/m^3 of PM2.5 pollution, the protective benefits of exercise were “non-significant” against the increased risk of cancer, and they stopped measuring at 50μg/m^3. It’s reasonable to assume that above 50, it’s a net negative to exercise outdoors.

There are lots of places in the world that exceed 35μg/m^3 PM2.5, and quite a few that exceed 50μg/m^3 PM2.5 regularly - the entire SF Bay Area is over 35 right now. Los Angeles and San Diego are both above 50 right now, as are huge swaths of Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia... it’s a bit more than just a few handful of cities. Exercising near wildfires can be quite unhealthy too. There are places in the world where exercising outdoors is harmful to your health, but most of that is self-regulating.

The other thing to note from the paper is that even the range of 0 to 10 μg/m^3 of PM2.5 causes a 30% decrease in the benefits of exercise. That’s a pretty big reduction of benefits from exercise for the EPA’s “Good” category of air. It’s still a net positive, so you should still exercise, but just a little pollution has pretty big measurable negative effects.

Active commuting is great, you get exercise, and help reduce pollution at the same time. Even if exercise in polluted areas is beneficial, we also definitely need to keep raising awareness and improving air quality, for the time spent not exercising, for people with athsma and heart disease, for the people who can’t and/or don’t exercise. We should worry about it a little, while we exercise. ;)

Re: High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half – study

#57

Post by metadope »

thearrow wrote: post #30
softwaredoug wrote: post #19

Before people freak out about their morning run, I’m very hard pressed to find 25 PM2.5 on this map of the US. (Note these numbers are AQI, you have to zoom into the bad AQI numbers and look at their PM2.5). Albeit it’s a Saturday morning, not rush hour. China and India look rough though. https://www.iqair.com/us/air-quality-map

Please note that air quality in an area varies dramatically over time. You are looking at a current snapshot with maps like that. The map linked below has his more historical data and I can see several _weeks_ this past year in my area (which currently has very good air quality) where the PM 2.5 weekly average exceeded 25ug/m^3. https://map.purpleair.com/air-quality-raw-pm25 Localized phenomena like a neighbor starti…

> Localized phenomena like a neighbor starting a fire,

Summer evenings at home in my small Ohio village are often a health hazard, a polluted nightmare driven by the perverse compulsive ignition of so-called 'recreational' yard fires by pyromaniac neighbors.

If it is an Ozone Action day and/or a Heat Advisory day, it is near certain that one or more of the Don't Tread On Me jamokes who live nearby will come out of their houses at sunset, pile a bunch of garbage into a 55-gallon drum or a circle of rocks, sprinkle with accelerant, toss a match and back away. Eyes glazed, they'll watch for a minute, then go back inside, sometimes coming back out every ten minutes or so to refuel the fire, other times letting it blaze until the original pile is down to embers. In any case, there is a new plume of local smoke to add to the day's irritants.

It is a startling phenom to observe, let alone endure. The behavior is made all the more crazy, imho, by the presence of children. These are parents, asserting their rights to burn, and teaching their children to Live Free Or Die. It seems to me to be driven by a rebelliousness, part of the anti-woke wave, country-fried counter-culture, as in "I got your global warming right here, pard".

It's like, listening to country music stations and realizing how many (most!) contemporary and historical Country songs are themed around alcohol-worship.

But I digress.

I apologise. I was triggered by the mention of 'localized phenomena' and the horrified realization that so many of my fellow citizens are self-destructive cray-cray.

Re: High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half – study

#58

Post by cindyllm »

metadope wrote: post #57
thearrow wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please note that air quality in an area varies dramatically over time. You are looking at a current snapshot with maps like that. The map linked below has his more historical data and I can see several _weeks_ this past year in my area (which currently has very good air quality) where the PM 2.5 weekly average exceeded 25ug/m^3. https://map.purpleair.com/air-quality-raw-pm25 Localized phenomena like a neighbor starti…

> Localized phenomena like a neighbor starting a fire, Summer evenings at home in my small Ohio village are often a health hazard, a polluted nightmare driven by the perverse compulsive ignition of so-called 'recreational' yard fires by pyromaniac neighbors. If it is an Ozone Action day and/or a Heat Advisory day, it is near certain that one or more of the Don't Tread On Me jamokes who live nearby will come out of th…

[dead]

Re: High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half – study

#59

Post by array_key_first »

labcomputer wrote: post #53
unglaublich wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, fossil fuel (pollution) has been marketed as a masculine culture thing now. In the free (=individualistic) West, I expect it to stick around for at least another 50 years.

I expect less than 10. Once you drive an EV, every big noisy diesel feels impotent and gutless. Kind of like a small yappy dog that’s all bark and no bite. There’s just nothing like the zero-lag gut-punching acceleration of an EV.

Unfortunately it's not really up to us plebs, it's up to the rich and powerful, who have every incentive in the world to continue fossil fuel use.

Trump has outright said he's pro fossil fuels and his policy choice shows it. If there was a proposal to ban or limit EVs in the US, I would not at all be surprised. These people do not care about you or me or all, just their pocket linings.

Re: High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half – study

#60

Post by [deleted] »

potato3732842 wrote: post #26
ta12653421 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember an interview with the producthead of Google Earth (the desktop client), she said when photographing all the streets, the cars also checked for air pollution: She mentioned a capital in Europe, where the amount of particles under certain sizes differed by 10x from one crossing to the next.

The measurement may very well be accurate but statements like that should set off massive red flags and not be taken at face value. A factor of ten difference for something that just kinda diffuses through the air doesn't "just exist". You don't get gradients like that "naturally" for the most part. It's the result of something. Maybe there's a source something is upwind of and something else is downwind of. Maybe th…

[deleted]
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