I can survive a day or a week or a month of seasonal allergies, but my activities are significantly curtailed. We could probably save hundreds of lives a year with what I spend on allergy mitigations, but my life would be significantly poorer.
My point of view is extremely biased towards my own welfare, but it's the only point of view I've got
Once you take into the account that the elastic part of electricity production is obtained, and will contonue to be for at least another 40 years, by burning fossil fuels, it becomes even less viable.
Thanks for this great math exercise on the potential health benefits of buying everyone air purifiers. I initially followed this newsletter because of a post on air quality. I think one glaringly obvious variable that was not included in this essay was the health benefit of decreasing the incidence of airborne diseases such as flu, measles, tuberculosis, and especially COVID-19.
Considering that homes were the most likely source of COVID-19 infections for individuals (at least earlier in the pandemic - because people got sick elsewhere and then came home and shared air with their housemates) it seems reasonable that homes are also the most likely source of other airborne diseases. Air purifiers in each home would likely decrease the number of individuals who get infected from most airborne diseases, or at least the severity of the infection. I have to believe that decrease provides a substantial boost in terms of dollars / DALY.
Given the heavy impact of airborne diseases on individual health, a seemingly much better alternative to buying every home a purifier would be investing in clean air in shared public spaces. While for any individual the home is the most likely source of infection for airborne diseases, it is certain public spaces where people from multiple households congregate that the disease really gains momentum and allows for mass infection of the population. To emphasize this point, a study published in JAMA Network Open suggested that 70% of household COVID-19 transmissions originated with a child, and it is reasonable to assume that most of those infections came from school or daycare. Without public transmission, each home would be where the chain of transmission was ultimately broken.
Imagine if all those hypothetical air purifiers were instead put in public spaces where people from multiple households congregate? They could have a powerful effect on limiting transmission in schools, healthcare facilities, prisons, and workplaces, which would drive community transmission downward. In the school I run, Abrome, we put air purifiers in every room, bringing each room above 12 air changes per hour in filtration alone. Thanks in part to our air filtration efforts, we never had a case of COVID transmission in our school (although we used a multilayered approach which also decreased the likelihood of COVID entering into the space in the first place). Considering that 70% of household COVID-19 transmissions originated with a child, I have to believe that our efforts alone provided real benefit to DALYs of our local community. We could do the same for all schools, daycares, and workplaces.
In order for this idea to work you couldn’t use plug in the wall air purifiers. You need to have whole house air purifiers running through ducting. And the typical house is not airtight at all. Even Passive House certified structures only have to meet a 0.6 air changes per hour at 50 pascals standard.
To deal with both increasing energy costs and polluted air the Passive House standard would be great. In addition to air tightness and mechanical ventilation, it includes thick thick insulation around the entire conditioned space. Ventilation uses energy recovery ventilators with full filtration because you’re effectively living in a more or less airtight beer cooler.
Discussions on this subject focus on size, but a thing I don’t see discussed is whether type of particle matters.
Intuitively, it seems that a droplet of water (cue aromatherapy diffuser article) is biomechanically different from a particle of soot, but my knowledge takes a sharp cliff dive there.
Maybe since in aggregate, the types of particles in these size ranges are usually bad (tire dust, wood soot…) so its kind of irrelevant for most discussions 🤷
I can survive a day or a week or a month of seasonal allergies, but my activities are significantly curtailed. We could probably save hundreds of lives a year with what I spend on allergy mitigations, but my life would be significantly poorer.
My point of view is extremely biased towards my own welfare, but it's the only point of view I've got
Once you take into the account that the elastic part of electricity production is obtained, and will contonue to be for at least another 40 years, by burning fossil fuels, it becomes even less viable.
Do you use an air purity/particulate meter to check the quality of your home air? Any recommendations on that if so?
Thanks for this great math exercise on the potential health benefits of buying everyone air purifiers. I initially followed this newsletter because of a post on air quality. I think one glaringly obvious variable that was not included in this essay was the health benefit of decreasing the incidence of airborne diseases such as flu, measles, tuberculosis, and especially COVID-19.
Considering that homes were the most likely source of COVID-19 infections for individuals (at least earlier in the pandemic - because people got sick elsewhere and then came home and shared air with their housemates) it seems reasonable that homes are also the most likely source of other airborne diseases. Air purifiers in each home would likely decrease the number of individuals who get infected from most airborne diseases, or at least the severity of the infection. I have to believe that decrease provides a substantial boost in terms of dollars / DALY.
Given the heavy impact of airborne diseases on individual health, a seemingly much better alternative to buying every home a purifier would be investing in clean air in shared public spaces. While for any individual the home is the most likely source of infection for airborne diseases, it is certain public spaces where people from multiple households congregate that the disease really gains momentum and allows for mass infection of the population. To emphasize this point, a study published in JAMA Network Open suggested that 70% of household COVID-19 transmissions originated with a child, and it is reasonable to assume that most of those infections came from school or daycare. Without public transmission, each home would be where the chain of transmission was ultimately broken.
Imagine if all those hypothetical air purifiers were instead put in public spaces where people from multiple households congregate? They could have a powerful effect on limiting transmission in schools, healthcare facilities, prisons, and workplaces, which would drive community transmission downward. In the school I run, Abrome, we put air purifiers in every room, bringing each room above 12 air changes per hour in filtration alone. Thanks in part to our air filtration efforts, we never had a case of COVID transmission in our school (although we used a multilayered approach which also decreased the likelihood of COVID entering into the space in the first place). Considering that 70% of household COVID-19 transmissions originated with a child, I have to believe that our efforts alone provided real benefit to DALYs of our local community. We could do the same for all schools, daycares, and workplaces.
In order for this idea to work you couldn’t use plug in the wall air purifiers. You need to have whole house air purifiers running through ducting. And the typical house is not airtight at all. Even Passive House certified structures only have to meet a 0.6 air changes per hour at 50 pascals standard.
To deal with both increasing energy costs and polluted air the Passive House standard would be great. In addition to air tightness and mechanical ventilation, it includes thick thick insulation around the entire conditioned space. Ventilation uses energy recovery ventilators with full filtration because you’re effectively living in a more or less airtight beer cooler.
Discussions on this subject focus on size, but a thing I don’t see discussed is whether type of particle matters.
Intuitively, it seems that a droplet of water (cue aromatherapy diffuser article) is biomechanically different from a particle of soot, but my knowledge takes a sharp cliff dive there.
Maybe since in aggregate, the types of particles in these size ranges are usually bad (tire dust, wood soot…) so its kind of irrelevant for most discussions 🤷
Can you please blog about germicidal UV radiation? Ideally, with a description of bolting it onto a HEPA box fan to capture UV's ozone byproducts :) https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23972651/ultraviolet-disinfection-germicide-far-uv