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garudabluffs · 1 year ago

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Today's Air Quality-Amherst, MA

50 Good

Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.

Primary Pollutant: O3 (Ozone)

All Pollutants

The Air Quality Index and how to use it, explained JUNE 28,2023

8 things you should know about the number that measures bad air.

"The EPA breaks the Air Quality Index into a few categories with different recommendations.

Green (0–50): The air is safe to breathe.

Yellow (51–100): The air quality is considered moderate, except forthe most sensitive groups.

Orange (101–150): Sensitive groups should reduce heavy exertion outside or take more breaks, and people with asthma and heart disease should watch for symptoms. The rest of the population may be fine.

Red (151–200): The air is unhealthy for everyone. Sensitive groupsshould avoid being active outdoors, while everyone else should reduce their time outdoors.

Purple (201–300): The air is very unhealthy for everyone. Everyone should consider moving their activities inside.

Maroon (301 and above): This is the highest level — hazardous — and anyone can be at risk. Everyone should avoid physical activity outdoors, and if you’re sensitive, you should remain indoors.

Doctors and public health experts urge people to monitor any symptoms as pollution levels climb, especially once the AQI is in the orange and red range."

READ MORE https://www.vox.com/climate/23769186/bad-air-quality-index-wildfires-pollution

What is AirNow?

AirNow is your one-stop source for air quality data. Our recently redesigned site highlights air quality in your local area first, while still providing air quality information at state, national, and world views. A new interactive map even lets you zoom out to get the big picture or drill down to see data for a single air quality monitor.

AirNow reports air quality using the official U.S. Air Quality Index (AQI), a color-coded index designed to communicate whether air quality is healthy or unhealthy for you. When you know the AQI in your area, you can take steps to protect your health.

READ MORE https://www.airnow.gov/about-airnow/

#Air Quality Index #AirNow.gov

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whattheabcxyz · 1 year ago

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2023-05-22

Health

Singapore: More seniors undergoing major surgery as population ages - 1 of them is 94!!!

Recalled contaminated eye drops linked to bacteria have led to a 4th death, CDC says - “The CDC and the FDA in February warned patients and clinicians to stop using EzriCare or Delsam Pharma’s Artificial Tears products after one death from an infection and reactions in dozens of patients, some who experienced permanent eye loss.”

Transport

Singapore: Shortage of drivers pushes ComfortDelGro to end 4 school bus contracts by this June

Singapore: ERP rates at 7 locations to be reduced by $1 for June school holidays

Singapore: SMRT to roll out video analytics system on Bukit Panjang LRT before Q3 this year - it will alert staff whenever a person is on the tracks

Environment

Experts call for uniform air quality indicator (AQI) in ASEAN ahead of transboundary talks in Singapore - our government will probably be against it as it will allow others to realise how polluted & $hitty our air really is

Nature

Black panther dies after being hit by car in Malaysia - didn’t know Malaysia still had black panthers!

Singapore

^ Army commando helps elderly woman after she falls off her bicycle - I’m not sure why people are making such a big deal out of this; this sort of behaviour should be expected of everyone on this planet (unless they’re a monster)

Wife of interior designer who went MIA, leaving customers in the lurch, claims she has made a missing persons report

Company apologises after employee asks man to pay $6.50 for coffee he had at job interview - so that’s how they make money!!!

155 hectares of skyrise greenery up as Singapore closes in on Green Plan target of 200 hectares - is this our hypocritical government’s way of compensating for the numerous forests they have razed here over the years (& continue to raze)?!

Delta Sport Centre reopens with bigger gym, new futsal courts, & more badminton courts

Man to be charged over misappropriation of funds & theft of luxury watches worth $1.6m

15 years’ jail for 86-year-old man who hacked ex-partner to death for not giving him bigger room - he had been abusive to her decades ago before she finally left him; she later allowed him to move back in, which is when he killed her

Lee Hsien Loong tests positive for COVID-19 for 1st time

More family offices setting up base here, above pre-pandemic numbers

Food

Singapore: Diner horrified after spotting “medium-sized” rat at AMK Vietnamese baguette stall

JB faces cook shortage with many preferring to work in Singapore instead

#food #singapore #nature #environment #transport #health

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reptilia2003 · 3 years ago

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wildfire smoke advice

okay so I’m seeing all the news about the west coast wildfire smoke reaching other places in the country that aren’t used to dealing with it. hopefully it goes away soon but even if it does you’ll probably have to deal with this again sometime this year cause we have another 4 months of fire season. so here is a breakdown of what to do from a Californian that has dealt with this problem for several years.

first, is the smoke bad? how can I know if it’s bad where i live?

yes! Bad air quality is linked to a lot of health problems, both chronic and acute. There’s lots of toxins in the smoke. Do your best to avoid it (more about that soon).

If it looks hazy out, or smells like smoke, or if the sun looks orange or pink: check the air quality! There’s a lot of good sources, including:

https://www.airnow.gov/

https://www2.purpleair.com/

The weather app on your phone also probably has an air quality measure.

What do the numbers mean?

The air quality index (AQI) indicates how poor the air quality is. 0-50 is good, 50-100 is moderate. For almost everyone, anything under 100 is okay and you’ll feel fine. 100-150 is unhealthy for sensitive groups. You may feel irritation in your nose and throat, and if you have asthma, it may be flaring up. 150-200 is unhealthy. Most people will start to feel it here. 200-300 is very unhealthy, and above 300 is hazardous. Sensitive people should avoid going outside too much if the index is above 100, and everyone should avoid going outside too much if it’s above 150.

okay, my air quality is bad. How do I avoid it?

First, if you’ve still got N95 or KN95 masks laying around from covid, you’ll want those. If you have to go outside when the air quality is bad, wear one! These can also be bought for reasonable prices at many home improvement stores. If you cant find them, double masking with cloth/surgical masks is better than nothing.

If you happen to have an air filter in your house (most people probably don’t if you’re not in a wildfire-prone area), run it as much as you can. If the air quality inside your house is really bad, try closing off an area and running the air filter in there to create a smaller space that has better air.

If you don’t have an air filter, try taking a furnace/AC filter and attaching it to the front of a box fan. This is better than nothing.

Keep your windows and doors closed as much as possible. If they don’t seal well, place rolled up towels against the cracks/frame.

okay, I’ve done all that, but I still feel like garbage

been there, done that!

If you have asthma, don’t be afraid to use your inhaler or even a nebulizer if you have one, it really helps. Inhalers can help even if you’re not having an acute asthma attack, but simply feeling chest tightness or difficulty breathing. Breathing in steam can also help.

Allergy medicine like zyrtec or claritin can help with things like sore throat, itchy throat, stuffy/irritated nose. Tea with honey can help as well.

You might be getting headaches as well, try whatever painkillers you usually take for that.

You might feel fatigued or worn out, or that you tire more easily. That’s normal too. Drink lots of water, and if you have asthma, do what you do to manage it when it flares up--your fatigue may be related to that.

if you’re having acute problems, don’t be afraid to see a doctor. Smoke can trigger a lot of health conditions.

Good luck everyone!

#air quality #wildfires #resources #wildfire smoke

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wolfwithatophat · 5 years ago

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i feel like so many of you guys dont actually realize that the Australia depicted on your standard map of the world isn’t to scale. We aren’t a tiny island at the bottom of the globe; we’re a huge nation and we are in serious peril.

A state of emergency has been declared in New South Wale and a state of disaster in parts of Victoria. We have 23 confirmed deaths to date, 1500 homes have been lost, 12 million acres of land destroyed and an estimated 480 million animals have been killed.

It isn’t just the fires either, the air pollution is extremely hazardous.

The air quality index scale (AQI) is used to measure the pollution in a city’s air such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and airborne particles in the environment. A general ‘good’ AQI is rating of 66 while anything above 200 is considered hazardous to health. On Wednesday, Canberra had an AQI of 568 - this made Canberra the most polluted city in the world. For the record, Dehli India (who is ranked 2nd now) had an AQI of 473. Simply stepping out onto your front yard is dangerous WITHOUT an immediate fire, especially for those at the brink of their lung capacity AKA children, the elderly and those (like lucky me!) with asthma. At times it is physically impossible to breathe with the smog; so it is no surprise that doctors have said they are expecting casualties from the air pollution.

Some of the hardest hit places in Victoria like Mallacoota are bathed in a daunting red from the flames as the SUN IS BLACKED OUT FROM ASH AND SMOKE.

It is almost 7PM on the east coast and it is still 42C (107.6F) in my location. We have a continued heat wave and more expected winds. My country is burning to the ground and our ““leader”“ cut the funding from our fire service and fucked off to Hawaii for a much needed holiday.

We are not ok.

#wolf speaks #rant #australia burns #australia bushfires #we are not ok.

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road-kill-eater · 4 years ago

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aqi is still above 200 with no end in sight. the rain keeps getting pushed back in the forecast, and there is no wind. its like stephen kings “the mist” out here. no rain in the rainforest for months now

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e-basard · 5 years ago

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Aside From The Haze, When Must You Wear A Face Masks?

Antioxidant rich foods such as fruits and vegetables can also help shield your own body against the damaging effects of absolutely free radicals created by air pollution. Finally, don't forget that indoor spaces can be polluted, as well. To limit pollution within the house, follow the following recommendations: Consider purchasing an inside air purifier; Avoid air fresheners and candles; Maintain filters on air conditioners and heaters clean; Vacuum regularly; Wash linens and stuffed toys to become rid of dust mites; Wash mould and mould off hard surfaces; Open the chimney to circulate the air on days once the air quality is still very excellent. Having a small amount of extra effort, you and your family can breathe cleaner air and enjoy better health.

Although everyone is affected by air pollution, populations that are particularly at an increased risk include things like: people with asthma; folks with heart disease; individuals with respiratory diseases; kiddies; active adults that exercise outdoors; elderly adults; people with diabetes; pregnant women. Even the AQI assigns the air quality a dent from 0 to 300. When AQI levels reach above 100, air quality is unhealthy. You can track the AQI for your area from your local newspaper, online or radio weathercasts, and online.

Air pollution is best through the heat of the day, so plan your outdoor activities for early morning or late evening. Avoid walking or cycling on busy streets. In the event you are sitting down in traffic, utilize the air setting in your own air conditioner to greatly cut down on fumes. If you're in a location at which you can't escape the pollution, try setting a handkerchief over your mouth and nose to aid filter gas and smoke.

Air pollution is substances in the air -- man-made or natural -- that can harm human health and the ecosystem. Fine particles from burning coal, fossil fuels, and timber can become into our lungs and spread to blood vessels. Major contributors to air pollution in metropolitan areas consist of exhaust out of cars, buses, and airplanes. Ground-level ozone, that leads to engine and gasoline gases interacting with all the sun's rays, can be also a factor. Understand about special information about air aollution mask, by adhering to anti pollution mask the link.

Acid rain forms once humidity in the air interacts with all carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide released by engine cars and factories and power plants that burn coal or oil. Yet, rural areas aren't resistant to air pollution. Dust from tractors plowing trucks, fields and cars driving on dirt or gravel roads, stone quarries, and smoke out of harvest fires and gas burning can all pollute clean air.

When ranges reach 101 to 150, at-risk teams need to reduce time outdoors and prolonged or heavy outdoor effort, as work out increases air intake. When the AQI reaches unhealthy heights of 151 to 200, everyone need to limit vulnerability. When ranges reach 201 to 300, it's considered unhealthy for sensitive groups -- especially those with heart disease. Folks at risk should avoid all outside activity.

#Face Masks #Air Pollution

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hall0weens · 5 years ago

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Guard Your Self And Your Family Members Coming From Air-Pollution

Antioxidant-rich food items like fruits and vegetables can also help shield the human own body against the damaging effects of free radicals created by air pollution. Finally, don't forget that indoor spaces can be cluttered, also. To restrict pollution inside the home, comply with those recommendations: Contemplate purchasing an internal anti pollution mask; Avoid air fresheners and candles; Maintain filters on air conditioners and heaters clean; Vacuum often; Wash linens and stuffed toys to find reduce dust mites; Wash mold and mould off hard surfaces; Spacious the chimney to circulate the air on days when the air quality is still good. Having a small amount of extra energy, you and your family can breathe cleaner air and enjoy better health.

Though everybody is affected by air pollution, populations that are particularly at an increased risk include: people with asthma; individuals who have heart disease; people suffer from respiratory diseases; children; active adults that work outdoors; older adults; individuals who have diabetes; pregnant ladies.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses the Air Quality Index (AQI) to provide the people having an easy way to understand the local air quality for any day. Even the AQI assigns the air quality a score from 0 to 300. The more complicated the AQI value, the greater the health factors. When AQI levels reach above 100, air quality is unhealthy. You can track the AQI on the area on your local newspaper, on television or radio weathercasts, and on the internet.

Air pollution is best through the heat of the day, and plan your outdoor activities for early morning or late night. Avoid walking or cycling to busy streets. If you're sitting down in traffic, use the recycled air putting in your own air conditioner to help cut on fumes. If you are in a location where you can't escape the pollution, try putting a handkerchief over your mouth and nose that will aid filter gas and smoke.

Air contamination is substances from the air -- either man-made or natural -- that can harm human health and the environment. Fine particles from burning coal, fossil fuels, and timber can get deep into our lungs and spread into blood vessels across your system. Major contributors to air pollution in metropolitan areas include exhaust from cars, buses, and airplanes. Ground-level ozone, that leads to motor and gasoline gases interacting with all sunlight's rays, can be also a factor. Know about special information on about air aollution mask, by following OxyBreath pro reviews this link.

Acidic rain forms when humidity in the air interacts using carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide released from engine vehicles and factories and power plants that burn coal or petroleum. But, rural areas aren't resistant to air pollution. Dirt from tractors plowing trucks, fields and cars driving on dirt or gravel roads, rock quarries, and smoke out of harvest fires and timber burning can all pollute clean air.

When ranges reach 101 into 150, at-risk groups should lower time spent outdoors and prolonged or heavy outdoor effort, as exercise increases air intake. As soon as the AQI reaches unhealthy heights of 151 to 200, everyone must limit exposure. When ranges reach 201 to 300, it's regarded unhealthy for sensitive groups -- especially people that have heart disease. Individuals at risk should avoid all outside activity.

#Air Pollution #pollution #environment pollution

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mgs-harshnoise · 5 years ago

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Guard Yourself And Your Family Members From Air Pollution

Antioxidant rich foods such as fruits and vegetables can also help shield your own body against the damaging effects of absolutely free radicals created by air pollution. Finally, don't forget that indoor spaces can be polluted, as well. To limit pollution within the house, follow the following recommendations: Consider purchasing an inside air purifier; Avoid air fresheners and candles; Maintain OxyBreath pro on air conditioners and heaters clean; Vacuum regularly; Wash linens and stuffed toys to become rid of dust mites; Wash mould and mould off hard surfaces; Open the chimney to circulate the air on days once the air quality is still very excellent. Having a small amount of extra effort, you and your family can breathe cleaner air and enjoy better health.

#environment pollution #pollution #Air Pollution

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componentplanet · 4 years ago

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DIY: Figuring Out How COVID-19 Might Travel In Your Home

By now we hopefully all know that it is better to be outside than inside when it comes not catching the COVID-19 from other people. You’ve probably also read stories like the famous (infamous) one about how certain patrons in the path of the air conditioner at a restaurant in China got sick, while ones at the other tables didn’t. Incidents like that one have resulted in pretty much shutting down entertaining non-family-members inside, at least in many places. But eventually, that is going to change. Which begs the question of how safe will it be, and how can we make it as safe as possible.

Many medical and commercial establishments are either designed with, or are now being remodeled with, sophisticated HVAC simulators to try and optimize the direction and speed of airflow to maximize safety. In particular, if air is either vented outside or recirculated through HEPA-grade filters, the faster you get it from people and out of the room the better. But that high-end design approach isn’t practical for a typical family and their apartment or home.

So, while it absolutely isn’t a medical-grade or even commercial-grade solution, we took the DIY approach to experiment with a combination of built-in HVAC and portable air filters to see if we could tell how (relatively) “safe” it might be to sit around our dining room table with friends someday, and how best we could prepare for that eventuality. We used an inexpensive fog machine (about $40 online) to create a simulated virus-carrying “cloud” for our tests. It’s not perfect; our setup certainly doesn’t model the extremes of sneezes at one end and potentially aerosol virus transmission at the other. Our approach isn’t really even commercial-grade, because cheap special effects “fog” doesn’t accurately mimic particular droplets or aerosols the way a high-end device costing thousands can. However, we figured that it was a lot better than simply guessing where the air we breathe goes after you exhale in your home or office.

Our Test Scenarios

We did most of our tests around the kitchen table, the most likely place in our home where we’ll be likely to eventually have non-family guests — once that makes sense. As a baseline, we tested with all the doors and windows closed, and no artificial air circulation. Then we turned on our whole-house fan (basically AC without the cooling), to get a sense of how much it would move the air around, and started experimenting with air filters.

Baseline: No Fans or Filters, Windows Closed

As a baseline we started with a closed room, with no AC, fan, or portable air filters:

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You can see that the “fog” hangs in the air for several minutes. To reiterate the main caveat with our test methodology, actual droplets would have fallen to the ground much more quickly, even if they weren’t blown away. However, aerosols would have continued wafting around in fairly high concentrations.

Using What You Have: Whole-House Fan

Most homes in the US have some type of HVAC that in addition to heating and cooling can be used simply as a large fan. In many cases, like ours, the air returned to the system is passed through a HEPA filter and cleaned before being sent back into the room, making it a good candidate for an air-moving solution.

So we turned our whole-home AC system onto fan mode to see the effect:

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Due to the design of the room, there aren’t any vents or returns in the immediate vicinity of the table. But there are vents in the ceiling a few feet away and a return about 12 feet away. However, the natural air path doesn’t flow across the table. The fan did cut the time the fog hung over the table roughly in half, so it definitely had an effect. Note that some HVAC units run their fans at a higher speed when you turn them to Cool or Heat mode instead of just fan mode, which means they would move the air slightly more quickly in those modes.

Home Air Filter, Placed on Floor

An obvious step for anyone wanting to improve airflow is to add a fan or portable air filter. The advantage of a HEPA-rated air filter is that the air passed through it will have been cleaned, so it doesn’t have to be vented to the outside. With a simple fan, you need to make sure it moves the air away and eventually outdoors. So we took a top-rated Coway 1512HH ($200 on Amazon) home air filter that we bought a few years ago thanks to the California wildfires, and placed in a typical location on the floor next to the table for our next experiment:

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Home Air Filter On the Table in Auto Mode

Clearly the floor location doesn’t take full advantage of the air filter’s potential. So we moved it to the table, set to Auto mode. That might be an actual possibility for a home. For a restaurant, it might be similar to the effect of having a built-in air filter somewhere near or above the table:

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As you can see this both increases its effectiveness in moving air, and means that much more of the air is actually filtered instead of simply being pushed around. In both cases, though, you can also see that a certain amount of the fog simply gets entrained in the fan exhaust and pushed up (the direction of the exhaust) even though it wasn’t directly affected by the fan.

Home Air Filter On the Table in Full-Power Mode

You can see in the last video that one issue with “Auto” mode is that the air filter doesn’t kick up to high power until it detects particles. Best case, that means a delay until enough particles reach it. Worst case, if everything is only aerosols, it might not trigger its High mode at all. So we did the same experiment again, but this time we set the air filter to full power from the start, to get it moving air more quickly:

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Preset to High and set on the table, our room-sized air filter did a quick job of clearing and cleaning the air.

Upgrading to a Larger Air Filter: The Coway Airmega 400S

Next, we upgraded to a larger-capacity Coway Airmega 400S ($652.49 on Amazon), with a theoretical ability to filter the air in a 1,500-square-foot area. (Note: Filter ratings typically mean that the unit can move the volume of air in a room that size with an 8-foot ceiling a few times per hour — which of course isn’t directly useful as a measurement of how effectively it will move air from one particular location.) To start, we placed the Airmega on the floor next to the table:

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The Airmega 400S definitely improves on having the smaller unit in the same location, although a lot of its effect is also simply by pushing air up from its exhaust port, rather than pulling it through its side intakes and cleaning it.

Going Whole Hog: Large Air Filter on the Table

For what we figured was the maximum intervention, we moved the Airmega 400S right onto the table, and set it to High. Coway has done a great job with the sound suppression on the unit, so it actually wasn’t that loud (the firm rates the unit at 66 dB, but doesn’t specify in which mode). I could imagine having dinner with it there (although perhaps on a small table next to the big table, instead of at the head of the dining table!) The results were impressive:

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You can see that if you’re willing to get a little bit extreme, you can clear the air from a group of people around a table quite quickly. Of course, this arrangement isn’t incredibly practical. But I can imagine some clever designs of overhead lights or tables that incorporate some form of air moving and filtration.

Using Cross-Ventilation to Let Nature Help

Depending on your room layout and the weather outside, simple cross-ventilation can be a big help. In our case, we have sliding glass doors about 10 feet away from the table on either side. We opened those up while there was a decent breeze and re-ran our experiment:

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Clearly just opening doors and windows isn’t enough to clear the air quickly unless you have a direct path for the air to travel and a breeze that will take advantage of it. It does clear the air over the course of a few minutes, though. So if you’re using a table or work area after someone else and are worried about what might be hanging around, having some cross-ventilation would be a great idea.

Here’s Why Being Outside Is So Great

Finally, to illustrate how powerful nature is we moved outside, into a breeze. Even aiming the fog generator directly across the table, with the breeze blowing the length of the table, the air clearly extremely quickly:

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Note that if someone coughs across the table at you (or at the person next to you and you are downwind of them), there is still some noticeable, if brief, airflow to where you are before the breeze pushes it away. Heavier droplets might also get pushed away more slowly.

Lessons Learned

First, I’m happy we did these experiments. It gives me a better sense of airflow than I’d had from reading and watching videos — and of course, it is specific to our house. Second, I can easily imagine setting up an air filter near our kitchen table at whatever point we feel safe having people over for dinner inside. As to a choice of air filters, we continue to be impressed by both Conway units. The company also offers a 300 model that is sized between the two, and a non-S version of the 400 that skips the “Smart” bit. Short of adding a portable air filter, turning on our fans makes sense, and obviously keeping doors and windows open to the extent the weather allows.

We still know so little about how COVID-19 actually moves through the air, and how long it persists in a harmful form on surfaces, that there isn’t yet any way to tell how much safer each of these tactics makes us, unfortunately. The experiment has given us some ideas for future tests, where we use different types of “fog” and also some baffling or other controls on the speed, timing, and direction of the generated fog.

Now Read:

How Air Quality and the AQI Are Measured

Enormous air purifier creates bubbles of clean air in polluted cities

NASA JPL Engineers Design COVID-19 Ventilator in 37 Days

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/312678-diy-figuring-out-how-covid-19-might-travel-in-your-home from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/07/diy-figuring-out-how-covid-19-might.html

#DIY: Figuring Out How COVID-19 Might Travel In Your Home

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