This is my cue to come and say that if you want to purify your home air, please look at the science first. Do NOT just go buy a HEPA. Chances are you'll waste your money and get little clean air.
Look for MERV and CADR ratings for filters. Then spend an afternoon building yourself a CR box with a box fan, or a narrower one with some computer fans. It'll work better than most commercial purifiers.
Yep, MERV13 or MERV14 is more than enough if all you're worried about is dust, pollen and smoke.
Because it's not as fine of a filter, far less air pressure is required to filter the air. This results in much, much quieter purifiers.
The endgame of this sort of goal is PC case fans. They've been optimized for decades now to squeeze every last bit of airflow for less and less noise, and they last for a couple decades or more.
To make things even messier, heavy metals like lead and mercury can also be airborne and have been linked to harmful effects on the brain. For simplicity, we’ll talk about all of these under the same umbrella of air pollution, because they all contribute to negative health outcomes, including effects on the brain.
It's still present in a lot of avgas! (Fuel for airplanes) Obviously much less impactful than being surrounded by lead-spewing cars, we haven't totally stopped lead-spewing generally yet.
It would be interesting to know how much leaded avgas specifically affects people. Clearly most of it is emitted high up in the atmosphere but there's still a lot of idling and taxiing around airports...
I'm personally betting, that they simply have easier access to more information, comparing to me at the same age.
When I started Uni, the "A diploma will guarantee you great job opportunities" mantra was unshakeable.
Now I think, the pendulum swung so hard in the other direction, that kids of same age have tons of refuttals at their disposal. It must take a lot more work, from parents, to instill and motivate what was once seen as a good career starter.
It's not enough to explain the problem, IMO. And it's a problem that is worse in some population segments than others. Even in poor countries.
The mechanisms that separate more from less affected segments go back one and more generations, which is why it's not harder for parents to keep their kids on track despite "more stuff" but a lot of parents have it harder because their own brains/organisms are more affected than those of others.
And "some take more care of themselves than others" loops right back into my argument, which is so damn annoying.
It's taken me a great big freaking while to "rewire what fires together", including motivation and attention and I've looked at so many angles, while so many more and important ones require a bio-chem lab, an fMRI and PhD level knowledge in Molecular Bio-Tech.
Anyone wanna sponsor some of it :D? I'm serious, but among the elderly (37).
look at any connections to the thyroid gland, down and upstream.
Poor breathing = less NO, less oxygen → potential stress on thyroid metabolism (and almost any other metabolism).
NO is nitric oxide: the paranasal sinuses are a major source of NO gas.
And NO gas has antimicrobial effects (helps sterilize inhaled air), acts as a vasodilator (helps regulate blood flow and oxygen delivery), and enhances oxygen uptake in the lungs.
today in the mediterainian grocery store they had
"smog balls" candy, novlty product that has all kind of "warnings" about toxic waste on the package
so it realy looks like it is now impossible to tell just how pollution is/has effected the way we think, as where and how could we get a clear, clear baseline, and who cares anyway, it is guaranteed to get worse(long term average) everywhere on an continious ongoing basis, and the rest is pressure from nimby groups to relocate local sources, elsewhere, where perhaps it rains crap on there food
In addition to exhaust and brake and environment fumes, the off-gassing from plastics, adhesives, foam, flame retardants of a new car (new car smell) gives off lots of VOCs. Essentially you hot box yourself when you drive. Big ouch
I snagged a really nice levoit purifier during the wildfires, along with a PM2.5/10 sensor to verify its operation. Works great, even when the filter is "up" it still reduces by 95%~. I can verify this is functioning by turning it off and frying with the windows shut.
The filter lives in my bedroom where I figure it's doing the most good by giving me cleaner air when I'm sleeping. (maybe 1/3 of my life, so cheap investment in PM reduction!)
This is my cue to come and say that if you want to purify your home air, please look at the science first. Do NOT just go buy a HEPA. Chances are you'll waste your money and get little clean air.
Look for MERV and CADR ratings for filters. Then spend an afternoon building yourself a CR box with a box fan, or a narrower one with some computer fans. It'll work better than most commercial purifiers.
Yep, MERV13 or MERV14 is more than enough if all you're worried about is dust, pollen and smoke.
Because it's not as fine of a filter, far less air pressure is required to filter the air. This results in much, much quieter purifiers.
The endgame of this sort of goal is PC case fans. They've been optimized for decades now to squeeze every last bit of airflow for less and less noise, and they last for a couple decades or more.
Is it me or is the link only opening as JSON?
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Same on first visit, but loaded fine after reload.
I am surprised they did not mention tetraethyl lead that use to be a gasoline additive eventually phased out in the mid 70s.
5th paragraph:
To make things even messier, heavy metals like lead and mercury can also be airborne and have been linked to harmful effects on the brain. For simplicity, we’ll talk about all of these under the same umbrella of air pollution, because they all contribute to negative health outcomes, including effects on the brain.
It's still present in a lot of avgas! (Fuel for airplanes) Obviously much less impactful than being surrounded by lead-spewing cars, we haven't totally stopped lead-spewing generally yet.
It would be interesting to know how much leaded avgas specifically affects people. Clearly most of it is emitted high up in the atmosphere but there's still a lot of idling and taxiing around airports...
The smell gets almost unbearable inside the plane as it sits on the tarmac.
Elevated lead levels are found in the blood of airfield employees. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hhe/reports/pdfs/2012-0115-3186.pd...
That was in 2012, I'm sure things have changed a bit in aviation since then.
Could the impact of polluted air on children's brain development be one of the reasons why today's children are losing motivation to learn?
I'm personally betting, that they simply have easier access to more information, comparing to me at the same age.
When I started Uni, the "A diploma will guarantee you great job opportunities" mantra was unshakeable.
Now I think, the pendulum swung so hard in the other direction, that kids of same age have tons of refuttals at their disposal. It must take a lot more work, from parents, to instill and motivate what was once seen as a good career starter.
It's not enough to explain the problem, IMO. And it's a problem that is worse in some population segments than others. Even in poor countries.
The mechanisms that separate more from less affected segments go back one and more generations, which is why it's not harder for parents to keep their kids on track despite "more stuff" but a lot of parents have it harder because their own brains/organisms are more affected than those of others.
And "some take more care of themselves than others" loops right back into my argument, which is so damn annoying.
It's taken me a great big freaking while to "rewire what fires together", including motivation and attention and I've looked at so many angles, while so many more and important ones require a bio-chem lab, an fMRI and PhD level knowledge in Molecular Bio-Tech.
Anyone wanna sponsor some of it :D? I'm serious, but among the elderly (37).
In developed nations we are past the peak of air pollution so kids are breathing cleaner air:
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/peak-pollution
look at any connections to the thyroid gland, down and upstream.
Poor breathing = less NO, less oxygen → potential stress on thyroid metabolism (and almost any other metabolism).
NO is nitric oxide: the paranasal sinuses are a major source of NO gas.
And NO gas has antimicrobial effects (helps sterilize inhaled air), acts as a vasodilator (helps regulate blood flow and oxygen delivery), and enhances oxygen uptake in the lungs.
When I lived in New York it was jarring to see how clogged my hepa filter would be with black particulate every three months.
No way it's good to be inhaling any of that - break dust and all.
By this logic... shouldn't I have lost a IQ point to smoking ?!
What says you didn't? Smoking is associated with worse IQ development according to this study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00223...
not just brain is badly impacted by smoking, but everything else: skin, teeth, lungs, heart, vision, hormones, sleep, immunity, longevity, ..
Nope. Not necessarily.
a) fuck IQ. But since you are using it as a benchmark (here, at least). What is your IQ? How did you gain most of it?
b) How much are you smoking? Are you getting sub-level espresso effects from nicotine? (If you don't drink coffee, got anything to compare it with?)
c) How's your breathing? How often are you sick(ly)?
d) Where do you see yourself under the Bell curve? Professionally and or any other way you might believe is relevant.
Just think high frequency, max amplitude bell curves under bell curves. And then ... yeah, who says you didn't?
today in the mediterainian grocery store they had "smog balls" candy, novlty product that has all kind of "warnings" about toxic waste on the package
so it realy looks like it is now impossible to tell just how pollution is/has effected the way we think, as where and how could we get a clear, clear baseline, and who cares anyway, it is guaranteed to get worse(long term average) everywhere on an continious ongoing basis, and the rest is pressure from nimby groups to relocate local sources, elsewhere, where perhaps it rains crap on there food
In addition to exhaust and brake and environment fumes, the off-gassing from plastics, adhesives, foam, flame retardants of a new car (new car smell) gives off lots of VOCs. Essentially you hot box yourself when you drive. Big ouch
I snagged a really nice levoit purifier during the wildfires, along with a PM2.5/10 sensor to verify its operation. Works great, even when the filter is "up" it still reduces by 95%~. I can verify this is functioning by turning it off and frying with the windows shut.
The filter lives in my bedroom where I figure it's doing the most good by giving me cleaner air when I'm sleeping. (maybe 1/3 of my life, so cheap investment in PM reduction!)