[HN Gopher] High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits ...
___________________________________________________________________
High air pollution could diminish exercise benefits by half - study
Author : ashishgupta2209
Score : 166 points
Date : 2025-11-29 10:54 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (scienceclock.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (scienceclock.com)
| bluesky19283746 wrote:
| It sounds terrible . What will happend in the future?! The
| research doesn't differentiate between seasons , and every one
| knows how polluted the air is in the winter when everyone is
| heating their home and apartament.
| colinb wrote:
| 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.
| tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
| I remember as a kid visiting the home of a relative who had
| an old oven for wood/coal heating, even though the primary
| heating was now a gas (natural gas not gasoline) heater.
|
| The old oven remained though, and was used as a self-emptying
| trash can. When it filled up, a fire was lit to empty it. I
| don't remember what the sorting rules were (I assume "does it
| burn well and not smell up the apartment _too_ badly when
| lighting it ") and how common plastic packaging was back
| then, but I'm sure that the emissions coming out from the
| chimney were not a concern.
| lm28469 wrote:
| 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.
| colinb wrote:
| 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.
| adrianN wrote:
| In the future electric cars and heat pumps will improve the
| situation.
| edhelas wrote:
| And how the electricity will be made? Without any CO2 for
| sure! (or not... yet)
| rafaelmn wrote:
| What does CO2 emissions of electric power plants have with
| air quality in cities ?
| cinntaile wrote:
| Power plants are usually not placed inside cities. Less
| gasoline cars inside cities will definitely improve the
| local situation, not just limited to CO2.
| cowsandmilk wrote:
| CO2 isn't particulate matter. But more importantly, larger
| percentages of our electricity is being made without
| burning things.
| hagbard_c wrote:
| Nuclear power is a good option, wind and solar are usable
| for charging batteries - either EV batteries or storage
| banks which can be used to charge EV batteries. The problem
| with wind and solar is that there is no long-term storage
| solution as of yet but single-day storage is already
| achievable. Once enough nuclear capacity has been built up
| I foresee wind turbines disappearing from the landscape
| since they are cumbersome bird-killing eyesores. Solar
| power is there to stay since buildings need roofing anyway
| and we'll soon be at a point where the price difference
| between 'passive' roof cladding and PV 'panels' is close to
| negligible so it makes sense to install PV roof cladding
| and get some power for free, especially in places where air
| conditioning is popular.
| ozim wrote:
| You still have break pads and tires particles floating
| around.
| adrianN wrote:
| I specifically said ,,improve" not ,,eliminate air
| pollution completely".
| Schiendelman wrote:
| EVs generate far, far less brake pad dust, most of their
| braking is regeneration via the motors.
|
| Tires get more efficient every year, dust has reduced as
| the companies compete to make them last longer, and we're
| finally seeing the tire industry respond to pressure to
| reduce toxic runoff. Michelin's been removing phenols, for
| instance: https://resicare.michelin.com/news/michelin-
| resicare-resin-1...
| lm28469 wrote:
| When everyone on this planet want to live like the average
| European or American heat pumps and EVs won't save you from
| pollution
| adrianN wrote:
| To my knowledge air quality in Europe and the US is better
| than in many places where people aspire to live like the
| average European or American.
| lm28469 wrote:
| Yes, because they're manufacturing all the shit we
| consume, that's my point.
| clumsysmurf wrote:
| I look at the PM2.5 data for my city every day, and at this point
| (Nov) in the winter season, the only acceptable time to exercise
| is between 2PM-4PM after vertical mixing kicked in. Outside that
| duration, particulates are elevated after morning rush our, after
| evening rush hour, or during overnight inversion trapping evening
| rush hour + wood burning smoke until the next morning rush hour.
|
| This is one the main reasons why I would prefer working remote,
| it is hard to utilize this time well (for exercise) if you are in
| the office.
|
| At least with PM you can wear a mask, although I am still
| searching for the best one that works during intense exercise.
|
| Also wanted to point out "Trump EPA moves to abandon rule that
| sets tough standards for deadly soot pollution"
|
| https://apnews.com/article/epa-soot-air-pollution-trump-zeld...
| krzat wrote:
| > I am still searching for the best one that works during
| intense exercis
|
| Try a professional mask, like 3M 7500 with 2138 filters.
| clumsysmurf wrote:
| Thanks, that's one of the masks I use! Unlike the GVS SPM587
| it has a quick release thing so you can get to your hydration
| for water and microplastics :/
| Theodores wrote:
| If only you could see it. In the big cities the air quality has
| improved, however, I am not sure if it really has, or if we are
| now just burning hydrocarbons more efficiently so that the
| particle sizes have become invisible.
|
| Put it this way, although cars are allegedly better than they
| were, fuel consumption hasn't dropped considerably. The cars are
| more numerous than ever, and, although there are EVs, there are
| still more ICE cars than there were in the good old days when
| petrol came with lead in it.
|
| I am not sure that most people in urban areas even know what good
| air tastes and smells like. I take a canal path through lush
| countryside, far from any cars for most of the way. This canal
| has an aqueduct (or is it a viaduct?) over a motorway and the
| contrast is incredible. You go from basically smelling flowers to
| air pollution and back to clean air again quite quickly, so the
| filth is totally noticeable. Note the cars on the motorway are
| going at speed, so they should be working efficiently (until a
| few decades ago 56 mph was what engines were optimised for
| regarding efficiency in the UK).
|
| If just living in a major city then you don't get this instant
| switch from bad to good air. So you just don't notice it. If you
| could see the filth, you would prefer a swimming pool that was
| pissed in, it is that toxic.
|
| If you do have to live in a city, my top tip is to find out if
| there are any meteorologists in town. If there are, buy a house
| next to where they are living. Anecdotal, however, I used to work
| with meteorologists and they would always live to the West of the
| city centre, to get cleaner air than those living in the east of
| the city, or further downwind.
|
| Again anecdotal, however, due to the canal and motorway
| experience described above, in post-industrial countries such as
| the UK, it is definitely the vehicles rather than any other
| source. Given the choice of microparticles that just get in your
| blood or clumps of big particles that you can eventually cough up
| and spit out, I would much prefer the latter. My hunch is that
| the legislation to improve vehicle emissions has optimised the
| exhaust for nanoparticles. Please prove me wrong!
| softwaredoug wrote:
| For urban areas the risk of air pollution is another reason for
| cities to have congestion pricing to support public
| transportation.
| jwr wrote:
| > I am not sure that most people in urban areas even know what
| good air tastes and smells like.
|
| I run air filters in my apartment throughout winter months,
| which tend to be the worst in terms of air quality here.
|
| When I go outside in the morning I can really smell the stuff
| in the air, for a brief moment, until I get used to it. But you
| definitely notice the difference!
| ozim wrote:
| 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.
| unglaublich wrote:
| One good thing about electric vehicles is that regenerative
| breaking effectively eradicates brake pad use and pollution.
| Only tire dust remains significant.
| ungreased0675 wrote:
| 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."
| staminade wrote:
| Sure thing, here's a report from the Greater London Authority
| tracking the history of air quality in the city since the
| "Great Smog" event 1952, which caused an estimated 4000 deaths.
|
| https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/environment-...
|
| The main takeaway is that yes, urban air quality (including
| fine particulate matter) has improved massively over time, but
| most of it had little to do with road traffic, as for decades
| it wasn't a significant contributor to the overall mix. The
| important change was the move away from burning solid fuels
| like coal for household heating and in power stations within
| cities, to using gas and electricity with larger, out-of-town
| power stations.
|
| As other sources have declined, road traffic has indeed become
| the largest contribution to urban air pollution, but even here
| there has been progress. Fine particulate emissions have
| continued to decline as car manufacturers have adapted to more
| stringent regulation (cheating scandals notwithstanding). A
| bigger problem now is higher non-exhaust emissions caused by
| larger and heavier vehicles. This is something else that will
| need to be solved via regulation. Other policies like Low
| Traffic Neighbourhoods can also help to restrict the worst
| pollution to major roads and away from where most people live.
|
| Urban air quality is never going to be as good as that in the
| countryside, but it's not true to believe that no progress has
| been made, and that it's simply been a switch in the type of
| pollution.
| hexbin010 wrote:
| > Anecdotal, however, I used to work with meteorologists and
| they would always live to the West of the city centre, to get
| cleaner air than those living in the east of the city, or
| further downwind.
|
| The industrial-revolution era mill owners were very aware of
| this too. Posh area of Manchester is to the south (westerly
| winds;) Leeds to the north (mix of northerly and westerly winds
| I believe).
|
| Also, anecdotally, smaller towns and villages can have poor air
| quality too due to log burners. They're an absolute pain. You
| can tell when an area has become gentrified when shiny new
| chimneys start popping up or a log burner shop opens up!
| kqr wrote:
| 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 start out strong but
| level off after a while.
|
| - Negative effects due to pollution. These increase almost
| linearly with time spent outside.
|
| One might ask, is there an amount of daily exercise at which the
| negative effects overpower the positive ones? Yes, in a handful
| of cities around the world, after a few hours of exercise, the
| pollution makes additional outdoors exercise actually harmful.
|
| But almost everywhere a marginal minute of exercise provides a
| positive effect on health regardless of time already spent
| exercising, and there is nowhere in the world where something
| like an hour of exercise a day is a net negative. Get out there.
| Pick an active means of commuting (cycling, running, walking,
| skiing, rollerblading, skateboarding, unicycling) and don't worry
| so much about pollution unless you live in one of those single-
| digit cities which I forget where they are, but probably
| concentrated in Asia.
|
| (I feel bad about typing this out without linking to the source.
| I'm looking for it in my notes!)
| ta12653421 wrote:
| 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.
| potato3732842 wrote:
| 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 there's conditions causing it to concentrate. Or it
| varies 10x day to day, but on an average basis it equals out.
| Etc. Etc.
| djtango wrote:
| Doesn't it really depend? Like I recall Oxford Street in
| London at one point was notoriously bad because it was a
| bottleneck for a lot of slow moving traffic so that one
| length of road was especially bad. 10x bad I don't know...
| But it's not hard to imagine some of the quieter roads
| filtering off like Berwick St or Dean St would be
| considerably better
| labcomputer wrote:
| Slow moving traffic at one intersection and free flowing
| traffic at another could easily account for a 10x ratio
| of particulate pollution, especially in European capitals
| where diesels are prevalent.
|
| But a 10x ratio _on the same road_ is also plausible if
| the Google car is following a large truck on one pass and
| then driving by itself on the second.
| ffsm8 wrote:
| Especially the small particles in large cities are mostly
| caused by Biodiesel fuels - at least from my anecdotal
| experience.
|
| I have a Phillips air purifier which includes a sensor for
| particles - whenever Diesel cars drove by the particles
| spiked and it went full throttle for a while if I had my
| window open.
| meindnoch wrote:
| Surely it wasn't because the Google car was driving behind an
| ancient diesel with a blown catalytic converter...
| dahart wrote:
| 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 35mg/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
| 50mg/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 35mg/m^3
| PM2.5, and quite a few that exceed 50mg/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 mg/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. ;)
| softwaredoug wrote:
| 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
| thearrow wrote:
| 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 starting a fire, up to the
| activity of nearby factories and power plants, up to national
| and global phenomena like wildfires and weather patterns, all
| have dramatic effects. Looking at an air quality map once and
| determining that you don't have to think about air quality
| because you're in the US is a mistake.
|
| Exercise outdoors is a wonderful thing, obviously, but there
| are some days, even in the US, where you might think twice or
| even consider shifting your exercise to a different (less-
| polluted) time of the day.
| metadope wrote:
| > 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.
| dylan604 wrote:
| I'm not familiar with Ohio village, but I grew up in
| unincorporated county land in the Texas boonies. My dad had
| a burn barrel, and would dump oil into the ground "putting
| it back from where it came". Even as a kid, nothing about
| it _felt_ right. Just that experience alone gives no doubt
| to service members working the burn pits qualifying for
| disability
| qprofyeh wrote:
| 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.
| unglaublich wrote:
| 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.
| labcomputer wrote:
| 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.
| array_key_first wrote:
| 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.
| yosito wrote:
| Like many other "masculine culture" things, the propaganda
| sold to men about what's masculine doesn't necessarily have
| a connection to reality.
| Timon3 wrote:
| The industry is trying their best to fight against it. The
| EU is currently planning to ban new ICE cars from 2035, but
| the conservative German government & car lobbyists are
| trying to get them to drop those plans... That, combined
| with high tariffs for cheap asian EVs will probably
| artificially keep us on ICEs for a while longer.
| staminade wrote:
| Which cities are you referring to? Some cities have policies
| that discourage gas and diesel cars, and plans to outlaw them
| by 2030, but I'm not aware of any that have banned them
| outright yet.
| anonymars wrote:
| Zermatt (Switzerland) is one
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zermatt#Transport
|
| This is a more fun / less clinical read:
| https://www.motortrend.com/news/swiss-town-went-straight-
| hor...
| gedy wrote:
| Maybe you mean this, but does "fossil fuel" really mean Diesel
| engines? Those were very awful to breathe around and were
| widespread in European cities as we all know.
| unglaublich wrote:
| And all the while, nothing is done to get old 2-stroke mopeds of
| the road in Europe. It's such a low hanging fruit to get those
| hyper polluters out of cities but in an individualistic society,
| personal cult status seems more important than common health.
| dylan604 wrote:
| These seemed like the obvious EV conversion target to me before
| cars for Europe. Why have these not been converted to EV?
| unglaublich wrote:
| They have, but individuals value nostalgia more than
| practicality.
| potato3732842 wrote:
| Cities have mostly only gotten cleaner with time. This is way,
| way, way down the list of things that I'm worried about killing
| me.
| metalman wrote:
| air pollution, light pollution, noise pollution, toxins and
| poisons, random falsehoods in your mind
|
| facts that read as curse to be found on an amuelet dug up in some
| near(ish) future iteration of whatever the,, it is,, that we are
| doing right now
| merryocha wrote:
| I wish more people paid attention to air quality. I'm a delivery
| driver and air quality has a noticeable effect on my energy
| levels throughout the day and also my mood. Slightly rainy days
| are probably my favorite days to work because no one is outside
| digging up roads and kicking up tire dust with leaf blowers and
| the rain seems to clean the air a bit.
| xeromal wrote:
| As a motorcycle rider, it's always very noticeable. The stale
| air from the helmet coupled with the shit shit air from outside
| makes me very sleepy and you can develop a sore throat in a few
| hours
| PaulKeeble wrote:
| 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.
| homebrewer wrote:
| 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 ruins of
| a building that has burned down 5-10 years ago and never
| rebuilt.
| gbear605 wrote:
| 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.
| ck2 wrote:
| 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 that can go on a keyring so inside a
| phone is not implausible within a few years
| homebrewer wrote:
| I doubt it, maybe in rich countries where the air is already
| pretty good. There are enough places out there (mine included)
| where you can see and feel air pollution without using any
| sensors: limited visibility on the order of a few dozen meters,
| smell of burning coal and rubber tires in the air, windows
| blackened by soot. Everybody knows how terrible the air is,
| talks about it daily, and can't actually do anything about it.
|
| I've been advocating for closed windows and increased use of
| air purifiers and FFP3/N99 respirators, and had some limited
| success among people I know. People are often easily convinced
| once they see the state of their filter or respirator after a
| few days of use.
| dahart wrote:
| Yeah it'd be cool if the phones had sensors. Everyone can see
| local AQI already though; weather app has AQI, and you can tap
| on it for a local region map, as well as a table of pollutant
| details.
| ck2 wrote:
| the "local AQI" is usually from a single government sensor
| for 100 mile radius which is useless as pollution is highly
| localized (think neighbor idiots burning leaves all day)
|
| also doesn't tell you indoor air quality which where you
| sleep REALLY matters if the co2 is sky high
|
| best third party AQI network is PurpleAIR but even with them
| certain cities have few or none
|
| https://map.purpleair.com/air-quality-standards-us-epa-aqi
|
| airgradient barely has any in some US states
|
| https://www.airgradient.com/map/
|
| US doesn't even have mandatory air-quality sensors at
| airports, which it should because that's where most of the
| other weather measurements are coming from on most apps, even
| if you are 30-50 miles away
| dahart wrote:
| > the "local AQI" is usually from a single government
| sensor for 100 mile radius
|
| What's your source on this? IPhone's AQI report says it's
| from Breezometer, which links to Google's Enterprise AQI
| offerings, which claim 500m resolution and multiple sources
| ("over 70 local indexes"). I don't know but would speculate
| that Purple Air might be one of the licensed sources.
|
| https://mapsplatform.google.com/maps-products/air-quality/
| jerlam wrote:
| Even if measurement was perfect, people would have
| incentive to ignore it. Who wants to be told they can't do
| something, based on some claim that it might be bad for
| them in the very long term? People still smoke cigarettes
| and drink alcohol despite those being known to be bad for
| decades.
|
| Air pollution, like numerous other things like water
| quality and medical care, is too big to be made into a
| individual decision.
| deadbabe wrote:
| There's no need really, you can already download air quality
| data from dedicated sensor towers.
| kakacik wrote:
| Hiking in the hills / mountains is one of the healthiest sports
| there is, unless you already have messed up legs. Or other
| mountain sports, but at least those I do have additional risks of
| injury or death that most folks would find unacceptable.
|
| Not everybody has easy access to mountains, but then we all forge
| our paths through life and at least at certain points of life we
| have some wiggle room to choose where to spend the rest of it.
| Polluted big cities may (or may not) bring more wealth but there
| is a cost.
|
| I look from my balcony on a large forest which is natural
| reserve, begins right in front of us. On the other side of the
| village there is a 15km band of vineyards on steep hills. I go up
| and end up in wild hills fully covered in pine forests and
| actually OK for winter sports (planning to do skitour there
| tomorrow morning). I go the other side and its 100km wide lake
| with crystal clear water, highly swimmable in summer. Highway is
| few km away, 100m lower.
|
| Coming to city makes me realize the various not OK smells I
| didn't sense when I was living there. Not regretting the move
| (but sure as hell hoping some part of work will remain WFH so its
| not just kids reaping benefits of living on a more healthy and
| overall better place)
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Aside: OP are these stories just re-rigged versions of other
| source articles out there?
|
| https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/nov/air-pollution-may-reduce...
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46084057)
|
| https://www.euronews.com/health/2025/11/28/air-pollution-may...
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