https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Cancer_s...
if you have data supporting that, please share it; it would be interesting (morbidly).
i think that's inaccurate because, while Romans knew of it (Pliny wrote of slaves getting breathing disease who worked with it), mining of it, largely for military uses didn't go crazy until the world wars, and surpluses from mining post wars was insidiously repurposed into the commercial sector particularly in california and in random other regions.
Hardly new, In Sketches, Old and New by Mark Twain in 1893, he treats the concept of: smoking being dangerous, as obviously known but annoying and he doesn't want to hear about it.
Bob: old cigarette smoke? Kids, this is how everything used to smell.
No. This can't be true. Everybody knows that _only smoking_ causes lung cancer. /s
I heard that pollution has no influence on one's health. Especially when the pollution is created by a big corporation (see DuPont).
Or what's your reasoning for the correlation to higher future air pollution?
Let's say that moving out is not an option :)
E.g. https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/dc/v000265948
It's snow white out of the box, and after using it for a few hours outside even in relatively clean air, it turns gray (and then dark gray if rubber straps hold for long enough).
The thing with these respirators (and also HEPA filters) is that they become better at filtering out particulates as they get dirtier, not worse; but their resistance to air also grows, so it gets more difficult to breathe over time. The rubber straps usually break before the respirator is very dirty anyway.
Note that these won't do anything against other pollutants (like nitrogen oxides), you need proper gas masks with special filters against those, they cost a lot and only last for a few hours.
I only use them when the air is really bad.
That doesn't directly answer your question about urban particulates and PM 2.5, but if you read its specs and it sounds appropriate, I can recommend the product.
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Respirator-replaceable-reusable-filte...
In my forthcoming O'Reilly book, the first project is to build a ML model to predict air quality at the location of one of those sensors:
Book:
https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/building-machine-l...
Code:
This article is super interesting as it shows that one of the key features (showing air pollution as cigarettes equivalent) on the new AirGradient Open Source Map [1] is actually scientifically backed.
This new map app is as a central component of our Clean Air Advocates Program, building on the foundation of data generated by thousands of our open-source air quality monitors [2].
To effectively visualise the impacts of air pollution, one of the first features we aim to implement is the "cigarettes smoked equivalent" [3]. This feature will help users understand the health implications of local air quality in a tangible way, reinforcing the program's goal of empowering individuals to understand and improve their local air quality.
We already have quite a big community behind this project [4], and I would love to see more people involved. So if you are interested, please get in touch with me or just start contributing!
[1] https://github.com/airgradienthq/airgradient-map
[2] https://www.airgradient.com/
[3] https://github.com/airgradienthq/airgradient-map/issues/100
pfdietz•7mo ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristolochic_acid
thaumasiotes•7mo ago