In my effort to help clean air communities to raise awareness (I am not only words), I decided to design three simple circular stickers which I will distribute to the communities once the poll is closed and you have selected the best sticker.
Choose one between the three of them and apply to get stickers once the poll is closed. You can apply for the winning sticker via the contact page. Thank you!
In a constant effort to educate the community, I highly recommend you to attend my upcoming webinar “Size Matters: Why is important to know the Particle Size Distribution“. The webinar is scheduled for the16th of November, 2022 at 8am EST.
Although it is a business oriented webinar, I will also try to educate in simple terms the attendees on what is PM2.5 and why it falls short as it doesn’t reveal in detail the make up of air pollution.
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You probably have seen “cozy” images of fireplaces or wood stoves with happy people, a blanket around them, and a hot beverage and you may have thought that’s something very appealing, I want that! Well, I would suggest thinking twice before taking that decision and if you have already taken it, maybe it’s time to undo your mistake.
You see, people get sick thanks to these “cozy” elements in houses. It’s very hard to undo the brain wash the wood stove industry has done all of these years but we have to realize that wood burning is neither sustainable nor healthy.
Many claims that biomass is sustainable but this is a myth. A story designed to push people into spending money for status or simple ineffective heating. You see, clean energy (wind, solar, etc) doesn’t require the user to buy fuel, logs, or pellets every season. It is there for us but doesn’t generate constant revenue for the companies.
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One will think that the more modern the house, the better the indoor air quality. However, that’s not always the truth as recently I discovered that many houses have inadequate appliances that will create harmful air pollutants and some of them will falsely mitigate contaminants by creating a false sense of remediation.
Gas cooktops are a must according to good chefs as the pans are able to heat immediately and you have more control of the heat. That’s not true as the new induction cook tops are able to heat the bottom of the pans as fast without releasing harmful pollutants like Nitrogen dioxide.
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Not lots of people are ready to accept the truth or understand it. We dismiss important information when it is not visible “out of sight, out of mind” and we get influenced when something is shiny and pretty.
Poor air quality won’t kill you (at least not immediately and depending on the pollutants), but do you want to be an average employee, athlete, parent, student, or the best? Do you want your employees to work in mediocre conditions and perform poorly, or do you want them to be vibrant and productive?
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I have this simple question. Have you noticed Climate Change?
I believe the summer heat has helped many in the northern hemisphere to notice that something is going on. However, climate change is not only extreme heat but a lot more.
Lots of news are covering the record temperatures that are registered in places never seen before. Lots of articles are talking about the deaths these high temperatures cause. All of them are true, but no one mentions the effects on the environment that supports our food chain and the animals that live on this planet too. Crops and animals, suffer a lot, and they don’t have an air conditioner to cope with the heat or an air purifier to cope with the air pollution.
Ground-level ozone causes more damage to plants and trees than any other air pollutant. Ozone penetrates leaves through stomata (tiny openings present on the epidermis of leaves) during gas exchange. Ozone is a strong oxidant, and it causes several types of symptoms, including chlorosis (yellowing of leaf) and necrosis (the death of the tissue).
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Low-cost sensors have helped communities see the air quality, but experts are still debating whether data are accurate or not. In many cases, monitor manufacturers have to turn to data manipulation in order to get accurate results, but it is time to step up by deploying better sensor technology.
The technology exists and we should take advantage of it as soon as possible. Almost always, the first thing I am asked about sensors is how accurate they are. Well, this question has a very tricky answer. In many cases, we measure accuracy by comparing a low-cost sensor with a reference monitor, which worths thousands of dollars. However, the comparison is not always fair. For example, if the XYZ company sends their monitor for evaluation during a high humidity season then unless they have a heater or dryer at the inlet to remove humid droplets of water from the samples before measurement then the results from the correlation would be catastrophic.
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Fireworks or pyrotechnics are used heavily to this day in many places around the world to celebrate various events. People have them associated with fan and parties, so they are not very open on hearing that they are bad for our health. Fireworks elevate air levels of particulate matter with several metallic components and gases during their explosion. Studies show that hospital admissions with respiratory issues increase during similar events all around the world.
The color of the fireworks is subject to the metals they mix, and while these metals heat from the explosive materials, they produce various color hues.
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Last week was CleanAirDay. I love days like this when a collective effort is made to raise awareness of such an important problem in modern society. Most importantly the new generation of citizens is taught about the importance of excellent air quality and the dangers of air pollution.
For the past few weeks, I have been living in the US near Boston and I am still trying to wrap my head around those super monstrous vehicles people use to commute from one place to another and how towns are designed to force people to drive everywhere.
I am the only person that walks to work or to the grocery store. Literally, I don’t see other people walking here. It’s tremendous!
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Well, although this is not my last article here on See the Air, this is my goodbye to consultancy and open collaboration with other experts and companies in the field of air quality.
Even though I didn’t want to write an article about emotions because this is a blog about tech and air quality, the fact that I will have to move abroad again is emotional because I will no longer work from my Spanish office, but my new US office. I can’t wait to experience new opportunities and meet and work with new people. Lots of excitement and a big smile on my face.
I’ve always tried to answer big questions about the importance of excellent air quality and how technology can help us see, quantify, and understand air pollutants in an effort to mitigate them and ensure quality of life.
In this post, I will answer the most-asked question that I’ve ever gotten: What is air quality?
Actually, I think I have a pretty good answer for that. Air quality is a scale of colors and numbers we have invented to try to understand if the air we breathe is good or bad. In most places around the world, an Air Quality Index (AQI) is used to determine the ambient air quality. Each AQI has different thresholds for each pollutant.
Personally, I disagree with most of the AQI out there and I have developed my own standards because my health is very important and it cannot be a subject of generalizations and the agendas of each environmental agency.
Over the years, I have taken part in various projects, in some of which I was responsible for the development of air quality monitors. Unfortunately, we often had to use over-the-counter sensors with limited accuracy and repeatability. Those low-cost sensors have offered tremendous insight into the consumer’s air quality, but it is time to bring even better and more precise measurements to the public.
For these reasons and as you can see from the image above, I am now joining Particles Plus, Inc., a company in Boston, USA specializing in the development of highly accurate particle counters.
Particles Plus offers a line of advanced-technology particle counters, air quality monitors, and environmental OEM sensors. As the most vertically integrated particle counter manufacturer and technology licensing company in the industry, Particles Plus engineers and manufactures its own counter, display, battery, vacuum pump, and sensor technology from the ground up. Added intelligence in each module results in products with superior performance, extended features, accuracy, quality, reliability, and value.
Well, everybody, thanks for reading this post. Stay tuned for lots of exciting news in the space of air quality monitoring.
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