[HN Gopher] Air pollution linked to higher risk of irreversible ...
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Air pollution linked to higher risk of irreversible sight loss
Author : rustoo
Score : 133 points
Date : 2021-01-26 12:33 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| latch wrote:
| I really think that 20-30 years from now, pollution will be
| linked as the cause of the new world of stupid and crazy.
|
| Microplastics, air pollution, water contamination and poor diet
| are going to be seen the same way lead now is.
| elicash wrote:
| Whenever air pollution comes up, I think about this study:
|
| https://www.vox.com/2020/1/8/21051869/indoor-air-pollution-s...
|
| Basically, false alarm about a nearby gas leak led to putting
| air filters in classrooms. And "math scores went up by 0.20
| standard deviations and English scores by 0.18 standard
| deviations, and the results hold up even when you control for
| 'detailed student demographics, including residential ZIP Code
| fixed effects that help control for a student's exposure to
| pollution at home.'" This is "comparable in scale to some of
| the most optimistic studies on the potential benefits of
| smaller class size."
|
| This was an area that didn't have high levels of pollution,
| either. So, 1) in worse areas you'd expect bigger gains, and 2)
| even if your area isn't "bad" it's still having an impact.
|
| Pollution is invisibly doing weird things to our brains,
| especially children, without us realizing it. Even just taking
| the TEST in a filtered room raises scores!
| novok wrote:
| How about pollen allergies? I estimate being under a minor
| allergic state that is hard to notice while taking your test
| doesn't help anything.
| WorldMaker wrote:
| Relatedly I often think about the Lead-Crime Hypothesis:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93crime_hypothesis
|
| While tough to ever formally prove, the hypothesis posits
| that the major problems in the 70s/80s with urban crime that
| trailed off quickly in 90s was as much caused/worsened by
| leftover lead in urban environments from the mistakes of
| leaded gasoline as any other factor.
|
| Pollution has been a great "unseen" evil in a lot of the 19th
| and 20th Centuries, and its amazing given how many secondary
| effects we can point to that there's any debate at all
| remaining on efforts to fix pollution issues.
| ahaucnx wrote:
| One should also not forget high CO2 developments in
| classrooms and its impact on test scores. We measured these
| in a school last year and it regularly went above 3000ppm
| [1].
|
| Studies show cognitive impacts already at relatively low
| increases. So the atmospheric CO2 build up could also in the
| long term impact our cognitive performance.
|
| [1] https://www.airgradient.com/blog/2020/02/07/we-measured-
| the-...
| fiftyfifty wrote:
| Air pollution has already been linked to a number of ailments
| like heart disease, cancer, asthma, dementia/Alzheimer's, it's
| certainly not the only cause but it's contribution is
| significant. Health care costs are something that are rarely
| discussed when we talk about the costs of fossil fuels but they
| are significant and costly in both lives and dollars.
| pmiller2 wrote:
| The polluters aren't the ones paying the increased medical
| costs. That's the problem.
| DataWorker wrote:
| I'd argue that we are the polluters and we are the people
| who pay the medical costs. It's up to us. And lobbying for
| more regulation is mostly cope; feels good but at most
| achieves maybe second order effects. The frog boil
| continues.
| pinouchon wrote:
| Do you think air pollution can be a cause of headaches and do you
| have good sources for reading about this? Recently I have been
| having a constant headache after moving to Budapest. Went to the
| doctors, they found nothing wrong with me. I went back to Germany
| and France for two weeks, felt better there. Back to Budapest,
| felt worse again. I also tried to move to Bielsko-Biala in Poland
| and the headache has gotten even worse here (2 days since I'm in
| Poland) It seems far fetched that pollution is the cause of my
| headache because most people do not have headaches there, so I
| want to read more about it.
| akor wrote:
| Could also be allergies. You might try and OTC allergy
| medication for a bit and see if it makes any difference.
| mtoddsmith wrote:
| I'm pretty sure my cat allergies were giving me 3-day headaches
| when one of our cats that I'm most allergic to would sleep in
| our bed and then I'd end up with the same pillow she slept on.
| I kept the cat out of the bedroom and no more asthma or
| headaches for 3-4 months now. So perhaps allergies?
| nickt wrote:
| sensor.community promotes building an open environmental data
| network, and has a good guide to building an ESP8266/SDS011 based
| node.
|
| https://sensor.community/en/sensors/airrohr/
| retSava wrote:
| SDS011: PM2.5 and PM10 sensor, as in 2.5 and 10 um particulate
| matter sensor, ie dust/pollution. Pollen too?
| akor wrote:
| I've wondered if air quality was an issue where I live but wanted
| to also be able to do something about it so I bought and air
| purifier with an air quality sensor (Winix D480). It mostly kicks
| up in the morning but I have no idea what is causing it to think
| the air quality is bad. For those who've gotten a real sensor how
| do you track what's actually causing the air quality issues so
| you can do something about it? I live close (1400ft / 444m) to a
| major highway so I've wondered if that could be a "source" but no
| idea how to tell.
| NetBeck wrote:
| Do you happen to eat toast in the morning?
|
| >"The scariest thing in this house is probably the toaster,"
| Erin Katz, another student volunteer, said. "I just had no idea
| that toasters emitted so many particles."[1]
|
| [1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-hidden-
| air...
| akor wrote:
| Yes, quite frequently. I haven't read it yet but had heard
| cooking can trip PM2.5 sensors up but I guess I assumed that
| air quality issues that come from something you eat would be
| less detrimental to health (as a general rule). It could
| certainly explain the propensity to kick up in the morning.
| Thank you.
| dognotdog wrote:
| > It mostly kicks up in the morning but I have no idea what is
| causing it to think the air quality is bad.
|
| If it's a standard PM sensor, those usually have a high
| temperature correlation that needs to be compensated for, and
| turning on the heat in the morning would likely produce a false
| positive with only naive signal processing.
| acidburnNSA wrote:
| I have laser PM sensors indoors and outdoors. Every morning
| my indoor one goes nuts. I have found that it's due to my SO
| spraying hair products.
| ed_balls wrote:
| shower
| Havoc wrote:
| I've got both - air purifier with a 2.5pm readout. Plus a
| separate sensor that does 2.5 and 10pm.
|
| Things that trigger it - mainly cooking. Even normal cooking
| can shoot levels to 4x WHO recommended.
|
| After that I've found that moisture can be picked up too. Ie
| shower. And finally on cold nights opening windows. Cause wood
| and gas heating by others
| xxpor wrote:
| Does it say what type of pollutant? PM2.5 is very different
| from SO2 which is different from O3, etc.
| akor wrote:
| No it's just an LED that's either blue, orange, red. I knew
| it wouldn't give me exact figures (or pollutants) but from
| what I'd read the "fix" was to get an air purifier or move.
| xiphias2 wrote:
| SO2 and O3 sensors are very expensive, so almost all sensors
| made for homes measure PM.
| xxpor wrote:
| In that case it's almost certainly the highway. Tires are a
| massive source of PM2.5.
| akor wrote:
| That's my main concern although maybe air pollution from
| toast / allergens is just as bad.
| Karawebnetwork wrote:
| Do you happen to live in an apartment building? In my case,
| pollution from the downstairs neighbors would affect my
| apartment. Especially cigarette smoke, which my neighbor only
| smokes indoor in the morning.
|
| Cooking breakfast is also a huge source of pollutants.
| akor wrote:
| I live in a single family dwelling so it's probably breakfast
| then.
| ahaucnx wrote:
| I mentioned it in previous posts. We have easy to use open
| hardware and software build instructions [1] for an air quality
| monitor based on a Wemos D1 mini. More than happy to help anybody
| who wants to build one. I have some PCBs left and can sent them
| to you (will only charge the postage). Feel free to contact me if
| you interested.
|
| [1] https://www.airgradient.com/diy/
| kingsloi wrote:
| That's awesome!
|
| I run a little community monitor for my little community in
| Gary, IN. https://millerbeach.community.
|
| I track PM2.5/10 with a PurpleAir, but want to start tracking
| other pollutants/gases/VOCs, but there is no consumer-grade
| equipment, and I wish I could afford the $5k purchase + $1-3000
| per year rental of the scientific-grade equipment from
| Ambilabs, EarthSense, or Kunak.
|
| I see this is PM2.5 + CO, is it possible to add other sensors
| to it, too?
| ahaucnx wrote:
| Yes. The pcb board actually has through holes to connect
| other sensors to unused IOs and you can easily adjust the
| software because it is open source.
| acidburnNSA wrote:
| Awesome project thanks!
|
| I did a dual indoor/outdoor homebrew weather/air quality sensor
| at the beginning of last summer. Very useful during the smoke
| season. Wayy less polished though!
|
| https://partofthething.com/thoughts/weather-and-air-quality-...
| ahaucnx wrote:
| Very nice project! I have a question on the light and sound
| sensor you use. Are these able to output calibrated values eg
| in Lux and dB?
| mrpopo wrote:
| This is great! Thanks for the hard work. How can I contact you
| for the PCBs?
| ahaucnx wrote:
| The is a contact us button on the website. Just use that.
| u678u wrote:
| That looks fun. if its your site the 'Plantower PMS5003 PM
| Sensor' link says it can't be shipped to the USA, presumably
| there are other vendors on aliexpress who do.
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(page generated 2021-01-26 23:02 UTC)