Category: Pollution

The Rush Hour Effect and the Worst Times to be Out on the Street

Rush hour - we’ve all heard of this phrase and perhaps we do every day. Indeed, it’s something that a lot of us avoid and that’s mostly so that we don’t end up late to work, school, or appointments.

Most of the times, it’s usually “Leave the house early so you don’t get stuck at rush hour,” or “Let’s leave for the mall after rush hour so we won’t be late.”

Indeed, rush hour is a hassle all over the world and it’s a day-to-day occurrence, especially during the weekdays. Here we outline how rush hour affects our lives.

A Common Problem

On an average, the rush hours all over the world are at 7am - 9am in the morning. This is usually the time where people drive going to work or school. Since most jobs and schools also open at this time, it’s no wonder that there are a lot of vehicles on the streets and roads. For the afternoon, it’s also usually at 3pm - 5pm, a common time work and school also end and where commuters rush to get home or to their after-work or after-school appointments. Traffic is now worse than it's ever been as the number of vehicles on streets at any time has drastically increased over the years.

Almost Everyone Has Cars

One of the biggest contributors to rush hour are personal vehicles. Imagine, there’s a single company with around 100 employees. Let’s say around 80% of those employees have their own vehicles. That’s bound to contribute to the traffic congestion. Let’s take LA for an example, in a 2017 study, it was found that 84% of commuters chose to drive going to work. Your vehicles are costing you more money than you think just sitting around in traffic. The average commuter wastes around 60 liters of fuel a year just sitting in traffic.

The Bigger the City, the Bigger the Congestion

Evidently, the bigger the city, the more businesses, schools, and companies there are. And that means more residents, more commuters, and more traffic congestion during rush hours. Congestion builds through the week from Monday through Friday. Traffic on Thursday is almost as bad as traffic on Friday! The bigger the city, the more traffic there is to get stuck in. In cities of over 1 million people, they spent an average of 71 hours stuck in traffic. These cities also experienced a road network that was congested for approximately 6 hours of the average weekday. According to the INRIX 2018 Global Traffic Scorecard, the top 10 most congested cities in the world are:

  1. Moscow, Russia – 210 hours lost in congestion
  2. Istanbul, Turkey – 157 hours
  3. Bogotá, Colombia – 272 hours
  4. Mexico City, Mexico – 218 hours
  5. São Paulo, Brazil – 154 hours
  6. London, United Kingdom – 227 hours
  7. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – 199 hours
  8. Boston, MA, United States – 164 hours
  9. Saint Petersburg, Russia – 200 hours
  10. Rome, Italy – 254 hours

Not Just About Being Late

While we’re mostly concerned about punctuality when it comes to rush hour, there’s also another aspect where it creates a negative affect and that’s our health and the environment’s too. As more cars congest in the streets, the more we exposed we are to pollution from the exhausts that many vehicles emit. Bad driving behavior like driving and braking too fast can cause even more traffic buildup behind you. This is due to chain reactions.

The next time you get into rush hour, don’t just think about your appointment. Think about your respiratory health too! It is best to drive at a steady pace. Try to avoid rush hour by driving at other times, using apps like Waze to avoid traffic, and use public transport as much as you can. Vehicles and sitting in traffic is also very expensive. What are some of your opinions on rush hour?

Beyond the Haze: Protecting Your Lungs in Hanoi’s Polluted Environment

Is Hanoi’s Air Quality Affecting Your Health? Signs You Need a Mask

Don’t Let Hanoi’s Pollution Hold You Back: Your Guide to Breathable Masks

The Hanoi Commuter’s Survival Guide: Essential Gear for Clean Air

Hanoi’s Invisible Threat: How to Breathe Easy in a Polluted City

Can’t Breathe? Do These Breathing Exercises to Increase Your Lung Capacity!

Why Is Littering Heavily Controlled or Fined?

Where You Can Go in a Good Mask

Buy No Mask Until You’ve Made Sure of These Factors

The Trash Train – Tracking Pollution To The Dump

Our Worst Nightmare

Smelling a faint of gas can be extremely scary. The fear is there because a small spark could ignite the gas. Of course we’re also scared that the gas could be toxic, so we want to know the search. Normally the first thing to do would be to find the source and turn off a main valve that would stop the flow of that gas. Sometimes the transport or storage of gas is extremely dangerous.

Sadly, a gas leak has just taken place in India killing 11 people and sending many more to hospitals. The number of people admitted to hospitals is between 300-1000 people. Furthermore, 1000 people have been evacuated from the LG Polymer plant in Vepagunta, Visakhapatnam. This is a city on the East coast of India between Kolkata and Chennai.  The plant is managed by South Korea based LG Chem, who said that the leak was now contained.

Leaking gas in your area can be dangerous; especially during evening hours when people are asleep. The hospitalized people need oxygenation and fresh air.

“The gas leak situation is now under control and we are exploring all ways to provide speedy treatment for those who suffer from inhaling the leaked gas. We are investigating the extent of damage and exact cause of the leak and deaths,” LG Chem said in a statement reported by India Today.

This kind of plant stores gas to make products from polystyrene, a type of plastic. The plastic is used to make cups, cutlery, makeup containers and electric fan blades. Polystyrene burns easily and releases toxic gasses when it does. The gas was simply being stored in a container that caused the contained gas to heat up and turn into a chemical reaction. That’s why the gas leaked.

There were still maintenance workers on site who were most effected. One of the night shift workers reported the leak after discovering it according to The Guardian.

This incident brings back memories of the Bhopal gas leak of 1984 , one of the worst industrial disasters of the 20th century. In that tragedy, thousands of people dies when 30 tons of methyl isocyanate gas were released from a pesticide plant run by Union Carbide. This has caused contaminated groundwater even decades later.

Source

400+ Acres Are On Fire in Siberia

Where is Siberia?

Siberia is a vast Russian province encompassing most of Northern Asia, with terrain spanning tundra, coniferous forest and mountain ranges. The Trans-Baikal region is the hardest hit and remains in emergency mode.

“In total, on April 28th of this year, 3,339 outbreaks were recorded, compared with last year – 1,960”, says Anoprienko. “The area covered by fires since the beginning of the year is 477,000 hectares. Last year, on this day was 382,000 hectares”. These numbers represent as much as 10 times more area damaged by fire in some regions when compared to last year.

Reasons For the Agricultural Fires

“The main reason, of course, is unauthorized and uncontrolled agricultural fires,” says Zinichev. “A less snowy winter, an abnormal winter, and insufficient soil moisture are factors that create the conditions for the transition of landscape fires to settlements.” Fires are started for warmth, to cook, to burn waste, plants, or even for light.

“An abnormally warm winter, an arid spring, and the human factor have made adjustments to our forecasts.”

Fires pose a threat for “significant damage or even death.” As a result Putin is calling for stricter rules and penalties for those starting the fires.

There are varying causes of fire which have also included unattended campfires.

So far, the fires have affected several areas destroying about 77 houses in their path. Smoke pollution is also an issue, which is so thick in some areas it forced a helicopter using spill buckets out of commission. Resident evacuation was necessary in the hardest hit areas and the fires burn on.

With winds of up to 80km an hour and temperatures reaching 25C the fires start and spread easily. There are approximately 600 firefighters working to out the fires despite social distancing restrictions.

 

Sources

https://siberiantimes.com/ecology/others/news/wildfires-critical-in-siberia-and-russian-far-east-up-to-ten-times-worse-than-last-year/

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2020/wildfires-in-siberia-bring-more-challenges-to-locked-down-area

10 Things a City Can Do To Reduce Air Pollution

Improving the Air Levels of Cities with These 10 Things

In our environment today, breathing fresh air seems to be impossible. The air quality that we have now is slowly becoming a threat to public health, especially in big cities. We encounter a lot of cars roaming around and spreading pollution, and most of these have contributed to the death of 6.1 million people worldwide every year.

There is hope because here are 10 things we can do to improve air levels and encourage others to take charge. Changing how you live can save millions of lives.

#1 Traffic organization reduces congestion

The heavy flow of traffic can produce a lot of pollution in cities especially if cars do not undergo emission testing regularly. City planners should understand how traffic flows, and the areas from which most people are coming and where they are going. Dense residential areas are where people come from to go to work and go to after work. The roads leading to and from these areas will be the most affected by traffic congestion.

In some areas it is really difficult to change the traffic movement through bottlenecks, but there are ways that this can be dealt with. Redirecting traffic through other areas, but also organizing streets so that traffic flows in separate lanes before a bottle neck will help reduce the amount of traffic stuck at a congestion zone. Also, using technology to inform drivers of traffic up ahead can limit traffic. Similar to Google Maps function to see traffic in the path ahead, apps like Waze allow the same location tracking of where devices (and therefore people) are slowing down and then suggests alternative routes for drivers that need to get to the area they’re going to.

You can encourage your city to come up with a traffic plan. For example, suggesting to lessen the number of cars traveling in specific areas during certain hours is a good way to reduce bottlenecks in traffic.

#2 Public Transport

Instead of taking your own car to work, you can take public transportation. You can help lessen air pollution in the city in your own little way. Public transport promotes less exhaust fumes and more environmentally friendly especially subways and or double-decker buses. When you think about having to wait for your ride all the time, you usually look for an alternative.

Nobody likes to wait. However, in a big city, owning a vehicle and paying for the costs of running and parking one should sway your mind to leave transportation to the city. A city has to try it’s best to add routes for

every residential area, with enough stops and enough rides per hour so that the waiting time for riders is reduced. Subways and undergrounds work efficiently as well, and because the prices are usually subsidized by the city, they become an affordable option for the majority of city residents.

#3 Parks and Trees

Recreational areas are a must for big cities. Not only do people enjoy watching their kids play, but people can also relax under the shade of a big tree. A cities livability rating is determined by how people rate their lives living in that place. Parks allow people to exercise, relax and get fresh air.

The greener in a city, the more people enjoy being outside and enjoying nature. Actually, nature has proven to increase concentration and has lots of other benefits. Plus, a common fact about trees is that they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, leaving us cleaner air to breathe.

#4 Air Management in Construction Zones

As cities grow, construction is imminent. The laws in place to manage pollution from construction are very important because it keeps residents safe. Specks of dust and debris caused by the construction sites in the city can contribute to air, water, noise and PM2.5 pollution. It is recommended for construction sites to install barriers like nets and barriers in place to contain dust within a construction site. Here are some ways that construction sites can reduce their pollution.

Air

  • Never burn waste materials
  • Use new machinery or keep diggers, excavators and anything with an engine maintained
  • Use low sulfur diesel
  • Use particulate filters and catalyst converters
  • Use water sprays and sprinklers to control the pollution
  • Use ‘on-tool’ extraction that remove exhaust directly where they are produced
  • Source local materials
  • Use renewable and sustainable materials
  • Wear appropriate Personal Protection Equipment

Water

  • Monitor and improve disposal of waste
  • Keep materials secure so that they don’t go into waterways
  • Cover up all drains during construction
  • Keep the road and footpath to the site clean at all times
  • Properly collect and treat wastewater

Noise

  • Use new and quiet tools
  • Limit working hours to be sociable as not to disturb residents. Notify them!
  • Put acoustic barriers in place
  • Ensure equipment is maintained
  • Switch off engines when not in use

Source

#5 Industrial Production Limiting

Several power plants within the city can harm people’s health and therefore, should be limited. If not, they should be asked to transfer to locations that are away from the public. These days it is easy to produce electricity with the power of the sun, water or wind. Coal power plants and other high polluting plants should be limited.

#6 Law on vehicles and fuel standards

Coding schemes should be modified to affect a city’s vehicles. his will lessen the volume of vehicles hourly, but also decrease the amount of pollution. Fuel standards are put in place so that vehicles emit less pollution. The age of engines and how they are maintained is monitored in many cities. Emissions stickers are only given to vehicles in America if the engine passes a yearly test. Many countries are lacking mandatory vehicle testing so this is really important for developing countries. Many developing countries also are not yet adhering to the best fuel standards. This means that there are more pollution emitting particles in the exhaust fumes.

#7 Large vehicle inspections

Large vehicles are the biggest contributors to black carbon that can be harmful to the public once inhaled. Minimized travel periods of these vehicles and emission testing certificates issued to these vehicles will definitely reduce pollution. Often large vehicles like excavators, tractors or trucks have larger engines which produce more exhausts. For more information on different vehicles and their pollution, see this article [link].

#8 Subsidize Green Energy

A renewable energy source is essential to reducing air pollution. Not having to depend on our fossil fuel energy sources is the way forward. Many countries are now jumping on the clean energy train, setting up solar panels, windmills and building more dams. Unfortunately, there are still plenty of countries running completely on nuclear and coal powered energy plants.

Let’s take a look at Iceland. 87% of it’s energy comes from hydro-power and the other 13% comes from geothermal power. Now Iceland is a small country with a small population but other countries can quickly catch up if they start investing in green energy

Take a look at the Netherlands, with thousands of windmills in the country and off the coast. The government has set up a subsidy for production of renewable energy in 6 different categories: biomass, geothermal, water, wind and sun. As follows, a wonderful example of how individuals can invest in green energy and even make money back from it in the future. They have made it super easy for any resident of The Netherlands to buy a part of a windmill. Once their investment has paid off, they can either use the energy their share produces in their own homes, or they can sell the energy they make.

#9 Trash Collection

Collecting trash should be done on a daily basis. Large numbers of residents who produce more than 1 kilo of trash each per day create a lot of trash. As someone who cares about the environment, you might recycle your trash. Recycling can lessen the amount of pollution caused by biodegradable garbage mixing with other types. The main thing a city can do to reduce trash fires is to collect trash at set times. If there aren’t enough collection trips per area, the trash is left behind.

n many places the trash is trouble for the residents so they decide to burn it. This is exactly what we don’t want to happen. Collecting trash and bringing it to a sorting center before it goes to a trash dump is necessary for any country to organize. Hiring private companies that can make money and pay salaries well is key to making sure everything is getting picked up. Additionally, keeping all of the collector’s equipment and vehicles should be maintained to be able keep the correct quota of trash pickups efficient and effective.

#10 Ban burning

Waste has chemicals that can pollute the air and suffocates people when burned. Take into account the banning of burning garbage within the city. There are different reasons why people burn things, but the biggest is a lack of education. People don’t have the luck of being brought up in a household that can afford a proper education for their children. When they grow up, they continue their bad habits like disposing of trash on the street and even burning it to get rid of it.

Some places simply have far too much trash, so they get tired of smelling the vile scent of choking. Sometimes it’s the only solution. That is where laws come in, and together with organized trash collection, burning can be stopped.

The burning of stubble to quickly prepare for a new crop season is another reason smoke fills city surroundings. These tactics of burning to increase the quality of soil can easily be changed by using the material that is normally burnt could be tilled. It can effectively be mixed back into the soil to reap the same rewards. Simply understanding the science behind how burning can affect us and educating those that don’t yet know is probably the best and only way forward to start making changes.

Conclusion

Start the change within yourself by encouraging and influencing others to do the same things as well. Help your city become less polluted for the better good of the community and for our future generations to enjoy. With these 10 tips for city standards and adjustments, our lives can improve. It will take hard work, a lot of planning, and policies for us to live in a paradise with no pollution, but we have to start somewhere!

How I Improved My Breathing In One Week (Outdoors Pt. 2)

Outdoor Air Pollution

Prevention

Check before you go out. Outdoors, avoid high density zones of air pollution. You can look up PM2.5 readings in certain areas using websites like aqicn.org or airvisual. To protect yourself against outdoor air pollution, it is most important to filter the air you breathe. Especially people with weaker immune systems need to be wary of what type of air they’re breathing.

Around 55% of our global population lives in urban areas. This means that we are often surrounded by less green, more construction, and more accelerating vehicles. Most of the time pollution is generated by numerous sources in various areas. Industrial factories, construction zones, and polluting vehicles all generate poor air quality. Fire zones are more likely to have poor air. Cranbrook Fire Zone shifting between medium and high danger levels ...The zone usually depends on dryness, but that qualifies where the fires may start. Once a fire has started, the pollution depends on the wind speed and direction. Look at 1 example of how coal plants spread their pollution.

A shape drawn around the exact location of burning can be drawn to inform people if the particles they breathe in that zone are unusually high.

A fire zone’s danger for our lungs is dependent on what is burning, and how the burning affects the surrounding area.

Dense areas (which cause traffic jams and idling)

can also be terrible areas for air pollution.

    1. Intersections
    2. Cross roads

      The panels show concentrations for NO2 (a), NOx (b) and PM10 (c).
      The panels show concentrations for NO2 (a), NOx (b) and PM10 (c).
    3. Near large roads

If you live near any of the above you might have noticed that opening your windows doesn’t get you much fresh air. Instead you see your levels rising because of the idling or accelerating vehicles. Having a purifier, keeping it on, and keeping windows closed during rush hours will be your best

  1. Construction zones
  2. Industrial zones where factories and other pollution generators are located

Different types of materials burning can be worse for you:

  1. Plastic
  2. Wood or Flora and Fauna, also can be a source of heat
  3. Waste (a mix of everything we throw away)
  4. Chemicals like Plastic and Rubber
    1. PETE or PET
    2. HDPE
    3. BOA
    4. Phthalates
    5. Persistent organic pollutants
    6. Oil
    7. Toxic metals
  5. MISC (polycarbonate, polylactide, acrylic, acrylonitrile butadiene, styrene, fiberglass, and nylon)

Types of Pollution

  • Gasses
  • Carbon Dioxide
  • Combustion
  • Vapor

Color of Pollutants

White smoke = wet, moisture
Gray smoke = wood or light plastics
Brown smoke = wood
Black smoke = heavy fuels (petroleum based: plastics, rubber, chemicals)
Blue smoke = oil from old vehicles

Wind Movement

Horizontal or Vertical movement of wind carrying pollution.

  1. Atmospheric pressure. As heat is created on the earth’s surface during the day, the air expands and rises.
  2. Transport winds moves smoke quickly away from the source. Dispersion levels can differ depending on wind
  3. Low dispersion usually occurs at night when wind is stagnant. This is because the mixing height of air as hot air rises reduces in temperature.
  4. Measures to prevent burning during hours that have direct effects on large numbers of people can cause drastic pollution levels.
  5. We predict wind direction and the height of the atmosphere using weather balloons which report back temperature, pressure and GPS coordinates
  6. Places have high concentrations of particles when they are near traffic lights: where vehicles accelerate the most: traffic lights or busy and dense intersection.

Wearing a Mask

In many polluted places, it is suggested to wear a high quality pollution mask. Masks can be uncomfortable to wear at first, but the benefits of filtering the air you breathe far outweigh the negative effects of PM2.5 particles and gasses entering your lungs. If you’ve ever been on a motorcycle in heavy traffic, you already know what kind of exhaust and dust you can inhale. If you’re used to being in a closed vehicle like a car, a small car purifier might be the option for you. We suggest getting a mask with high quality filters and the ability to reuse the mask instead of disposing the whole mask. This is to reduce waste. Most of our masks have replaceable filters that can be removed and replaced when the filtration material has filled up.

Studies show that Indoor air pollution causes more deaths than outdoor air pollution. We spend most of our time indoors, and many people (especially in developing countries) still cook using open flame coal. However, being careful with the air we breathe and filtering the air that enters our lungs is the main way to prevent air pollution from causing respiratory problems.

Conclusion

Of course, prevention is the key to pollution. Education is the most important thing of all. In many places people simply don’t know the science that explains harming our bodies and atmosphere. The fact that we have come so far, burning almost everything to dispose of it worldwide, is alarming. We need to remember that with every action we take we can either improve our environment or drastically change it for the worse. If you would like to learn how to teach people how to reduce their environment applicable in different cultures, please take a look at this article on what poor people cannot afford to realize.

See how we can protect ourselves indoors. 

How do we protect our lungs?

‘So how do we protect your lungs?’

Our filters are produced from the highest quality, highly efficient absorption material with micropore structure, fast resorption, and excellent purification efficiency. The filters are heat resistant, acid resistant, and alkali resistant with no smell.

The adsorption of organic particles is up to ten times higher than general activated carbon. Organic particles in gas, aldehyde, hydroxybenzene, and alkene are filtered because of the structure of the micropores. They also feature excellent adsorption of up to 95% of inorganic gases such as No, No2, So2, H2S, HF, HCL, CO and CO2.

Studies have proven that active carbon filters can remove all forms of pollutants. Multiple materials are required to attract the different molecules within pollutants. That is why active carbon filters have numerous properties. Activated charcoal has millions of pores that create immense surface area to which chemicals can adhere. The negatively charged ions within active carbon work similar to a magnet that attracts the positive ions like PM2.5 particles, heavy metals and other toxins.

To test the filtration efficiency of the filters, our manufacturer used the Automated Filter Tester 8130. This is the same instrument that is used at NIOSH to test the efficiency and penetration of aerosols. The results showed that the active carbon filter filtered 100% of PM10 particles, more than 99% of all PM2.5 particles, and 95% of PM0.3 particles.

Using the Met One Instrument AeroCet 531S, the filters were also tested independently.

The study was conducted from 8AM till 4PM for one day in the city center of Hanoi, VietNam. The laboratory had open windows, and was located on the 4th floor. The different sizes of pollutants in the room were collected simultaneously: PM1, PM2.5, PM7, PM10 and TSP, and were measured before and after the mask was tested. Sample masks and filters were measured for a total of 20 minutes each, and the instrument provided data every 2 minutes.

Results showed that the activate carbon filter has a filter efficiency of up to 99.8%. On average while the mask was fit tested on a subject, the filtration rate of PM2.5 particles was 95%. The gas mask filters filtered out 100% of PM2.5 particles through the microfiber filter and chemical cartridge, while 99.7% of particles were filtered while fitted on a subject.

The temperature was 25°C, and humidity was 89%.

The AEROCET 531S is a full–featured, battery operated, handheld mass monitor or particle counter. It simultaneously measures 6 mass concentration ranges (PM1, PM2.5, PM4, PM7, PM10 and TSP) or five particle count sizes (0.3µm, 0.5µm, 1.0µm, 5.0µm and 10µm).