I’ve come to understand that air pollution is a big silent killer.
This study suggests it is a bigger killer than smoking and is taking on average almost 2 years from life expectancy.
This paper looks at low birth weight / premie births and pollution along a highway.
Patrick Collinson (Stripe CEO, intellectual) has a long blog on the impact on IQ. Link here. He starts:
“Air pollution is a very big deal. Its adverse effects on numerous health outcomes and general mortality are widely documented. However, our understanding of its cognitive costs is more recent and those costs are almost certainly still significantly under-emphasized. For example, cognitive effects are not mentioned in most EPA materials.
World Bank data indicate that 3.7 billion people, about half the world's population, are exposed to more than 50 µg/m³ of PM2.5 on an annual basis, 5x the unit of measure for most of the findings below….”
I’ve had a long standing tickle cough off/on living in London, but I notice it disappears sometimes when travelling. So, I thought I should measure the air pollution (particularly PM2.5) in my home and perhaps filter.
It turns out over the week or so I’ve had my monitor and purifier that significant periods of the day are above 10 µg/m³ which is the WHO recommended level. Now, it’s much worse in poor countries and where cooking is on open stove and dirty fuels, but still that’s higher than I thought or would want.
WHO say “…Small particulate pollution have health impacts even at very low concentrations – indeed no threshold has been identified below which no damage to health is observed.”
WHO recommends: Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5)
10 μg/m3 annual mean
25 μg/m3 24-hour mean
I can’t as yet see any particular direct causes for the pollution spikes I am seeing - although one was definitely around cooking, and I think weather has an impact, but I’m glad for the monitor and purifier and if you have the spare wealth I would recommend buying an air purifier and monitor. My expensive Phillips model does both - UK amazon link here - but there are many other variants.
Air pollution tracking in London is now mapped here. I would seriously consider this as an input in house location and would expect it to impact valuations.
Check out my £10K micro-grants scheme here for people wanting to make a positive impact.