If you can improve the quality of the air you breathe, do it. Better air quality is the easiest way not to die, writes Dynomight. The essay is fascinating reading: "While most things that clearly improve health are well known, one is insanely underrated: Fixing your air. I suspect this is often the most effective health intervention, period. Nothing else is so important while also being so easy to address."
1. If you have an ultrasonic humidifier, kill it.
2. Monitor local air quality like the weather.
3. No incense.
4. Extinguish candles with a lid.
5. Be careful about smoke when cooking.
6. Get a particle counter.
7. Use an air purifier at home all the time. (Move this to #1 if the outdoor air has high particulate levels 8. where you live.)
8. Install a HEPA cabin air filter in your car.
9. Avoid aerosols.
10. Use a mask very carefully when in dirty air.
I spent far too long researching things like CADR when I decided to get air purifiers, but had no idea how bad it was to blow out candles—or that ultrasonic humidifiers are bad news. It's the hardness in the water being turned into fine, airborne dust.
Humidifiers: You're not going to like this, but ultrasonic humidifiers produce huge numbers of particles. They turn any minerals in the water into airborne particles. They do this almost by design! Park (2020) tested different types of water in a small chamber with a carefully controlled air exchange rate and got the following steady-state increases over background levels. … Using a humidifier at night is almost as bad as smoking 5 cigarettes!? I was skeptical such large numbers could be real.
Steam humidifiers are fine.
Better air quality is the easiest way not to die [Dynomight]
