Just today my GP suggested getting an inhaler. And I just found out a guy I work with got an inhaler last week.
It’s insane how bad the air pollution is, estimated to cause 40k premature deaths each year.
Meanwhile the government hardly does anything (though see below). People feel it’s their divine right to drive old dirty diesel vehicles and how dare the government impose any restriction on this polluting behaviour.
Luckily London just set up the ULEZ (ultra low emission zone) in a small part of central London, making older dirty cars pay a fee if they enter. But they’re not extending the ULEZ to Greater London for another two and a half years. Or another 100k premature deaths.
And the government does nothing. Except speed bumps, which people complain about, mandatory car maintenance, which people complain about, traffic lights everywhere, which people complain about, speed cameras, which people complain about, regulate emissions, which people complain about.
What I could find about the latest standards does not seem to support your claim. But maybe I'm looking at wrong numbers or misinterpreting them, so I wouldn't mind looking at your own sources if you have them.
EURO 6d standards for diesel passenger cars [1]:
- CO: 0.5 g/km
- NOx: 0.080 g/km
- PM: 0.0045 g/km
California LEV standards for passenger cars <50K miles/5 years [2]. (Not the same as EPA, but I assume California is more strict):
- CO: 3.4 g/mi = 2.1 g/km
- NOx: 0.2 g/mi = 0.12 g/km
- PM: 0.08 g/mi = 0.05 g/km
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_emission_standards
I don't know how widely reported it was outside the UK, but Prince Philip (Queen Elizabeth's husband) is 97. In January this year, he drove his car into a car with two women and a nine month old child in it. He was OK, the women required hospital treatment (but were not seriously injured).
"Prince Philip unhurt in crash" said the BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46912691 "Prince Philip will not be prosecuted [..] We have decided that it would not be in the public interest" said the Crown Prosecution Service. ( https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/14/prince-phili... ).
He voluntarily surrendered his driving license after that.
You're welcome to leave the city via some means that doesn't pollute the atmosphere. Walk, bike, etc. It's really whiney of you to feel so incensed that you can't just do whatever TF you want because "mah freedoms" when those activities are contributing to a degradation of the livability of the planet.
Yes, we as a species have reached the point where there are things we _can_ do that we _ought not_ do. Sucks I guess?
The Matrix AI robots do not really need humans to survive. They had a form of fusion. In reality the reason why they created the symbiotic relationship was as a kindness to their human supporters so that the human race would not go extinct.
They were the villains. It's established in the animatrix set of short films, that the machines did not perceive themselves as villains, and this is a common characteristic that cuts across most tropes of villainy. During a monologue, a villain will often equivocate their motivation with that of the hero. (you and me? we're really the same...)
Focus groups and producers interfered with that aspect of the plot (the grid computer made of people, hence the name: The Matrix), and rewrote the story to depict the machines as using humans as an energy source, a power grid (changing puns and quips using, instead of computational terms, to energy references, such as "coppertop" and the like), which tested as a more accessible concept to the lowest common denominator in the target audience.
If you watch the supplemental material included with the trilogy boxed set, I think it's mentioned in either one of the commentaries or the documentaries and interview segments.
This page indicates hypothyroidism is a result of iodine deficiency, rather than excess. Hyperthyroidism may be caused by excess iodine.
It can be both. Also, too much iodine can cause thyroid inflammation and cancer.
Meanwhile, the situation in London is similar in South Korea [2]. Most likely, worse: South Korean government is afraid of further regulating the domestic industry, when it should. Over the past decade or so, Chinese government has moved a lot of their factories to the East coast which faces SK in the West. Both SK and Chinese citizens must acknowledge this is a mutually-interested issue and take concrete steps to collaborate while minimizing finger pointing. I am convinced this is a tractable scientific and social/diplomatic problem. One proposal is to set up a joint government-backed venture/think tank that incrementally tackles this issue at a tech/policy level. Such a small step but no where near it...
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality
[2]: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/13/social-d...
I live in a heavily polluted city -- a couple of chemical plants, a coal power station, and the central heating system burning a few (dozen) tons of coal every day to combat -40°C winters. A lot of my friends/acquaintances (in fact, most of them) have moved to other cities and many of them report having trouble adjusting to less polluted atmosphere: trouble sleeping (after moving within the same timezone), constant headaches, rashes, the list goes on.
Also, you hear a lot of stories of older people (third world definition of "older", i.e. around 60), never having a single complaint about their health, moving to cleaner cities and dying in a couple of weeks of strokes and cardiac arrest.
It sounds like old wive's tale, but not when you hear it for the twentieth time from the relatives of yet another person affected.
Are you in your thirties?
Here is a demonstration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A8Yink0czc
I myself run one in my home but just place the filter behind and against the fan allowing the airflow to keep it in place.
Works wonders and I can see a noticeable difference in air quality and sleep (allergens, odors, etc)
(I used to own an expensive air filter that was top-rated by Consumer Reports at the time, but sold it during a minimalism phase. Now I want to try a filter again, this pollen season, but more frugally.)
I have come to suspect systemic inflation from the rampant pollution in LA caused my new autoimmune disease, or at worst exacerbated a condition I never experienced symptoms of before.
My mother was just diagnosed with dementia, and her mother had it before she died. Despite my "anecdata", I am keeping a close eye on these sort of findings, to see if my brain is going to go the same way. I've certainly had a higher pollution load in my life to date than either of them. :/
I believe the problem is that my body is not able to metabolize the toxic air molecules that gets to my bloodstream through my lungs.
I developed a persistent cough after moving from Shanghai to Santa Cruz, California, but it would be hard to blame that on air pollution.
And it turns out it was probably infection with Heliobacter Pylori.
I use a 3M room filter for white noise generation for my kids. Has worked very well for 7 years! (I believe I got asthma growing up around dust).