Ozone O3 an Air Pollutant

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The Ozone O3 is protecting us through the Ozone Shield from the harmful ultraviolet UV radiation when it is in the lower portion of the stratosphere at 20km to 30km above Earth. However it is a harmful gas for the respiratory system and it can cause serious health issues when it is inhaled in high consecration.

As a result we divide the Ozone in two categories, the Ozone Shield aka Good Ozone and the Ground Level Ozone aka Bad Ozone. Basically the Ground level Ozone is formatted by a combination of gases and the Sunlight.

VOCs + NOx + Heat + Sunlight = Ozone

 Breathing ozone O3 can trigger a variety of health problems, particularly for children, the elderly, and people of all ages who have lung diseases such as asthma. Ground level Ozone can also have harmful effects on sensitive vegetation and ecosystems.

Read more about air pollutants inside my book See The Air

Air Quality Devices – Comparison 2017 Q2

Sotirios Papathanasiou15 Comments

More and new devices on the market. From wearables to home AQI monitors are here to assist people’s needs. Remember air pollution is everywhere.

comparison air 2017 Q2

  • Prices may vary during time.
  • Some Companies don’t specify on their data sheet if their devices are capable to measure PM2.5 or PM10 and they just mention the word dust.
  • Some other companies say: Our product goes beyond CO₂ by analyzing substances that directly affect your well-being by measuring VOCs. They aren’t clear if their devices have CO₂ sensor.
  • Some of the devices are AQI Monitors and Air Purifiers Combo. On this list you can only read the features as an AQI monitor.
  • The classification of the design between Bad, Good and Very Good is based on the materials (plastic, wood, glass and metal) that they use and the aesthetic on my personal opinion.

CO2 Candles Experiment

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CO2 Candles Experiment

In this experiment I will demonstrate how fast Carbon Dioxide CO2 rises inside a room by lighting two small candles.

bedroomday1_0000 copy

I chose my study room as it can be easily isolated, plus I have got all the AQI monitors inside this room for the purpose of the experiment. The room is 7.3m². The experiment is easy, I lit 2 candles and closed the door and window of the room. Then I waiting with myself inside the room till the CO2 reached 1200ppm. Basically I logged the time when the CO2 was 430ppm and when it reached the 1200ppm with and without the candles.

With the candles the CO2 needed 35 minutes to reach the 1200ppm limit as you can see on the graph below and without any candle and with exactly the same conditions as before the CO2 needed 59 minutes to reach the upper limit.

Conclusion

You gain 25 minutes of more oxygen and less CO2 until the room reaches the 1200ppm limit which means more productive time and fewer headaches.

Gray Slate

Candles and Incense sources of Indoor Air Pollution

Sotirios Papathanasiou5 Comments

Candles and Incense sources of Indoor Air Pollution

They look nice and they smell even better, but unfortunately most of them are made of toxic ingredients and when you light them, they diffuse all these toxic ingredients inside your house.

Harmful VOCs

Most commercial candles are full of toxic ingredients that many times they don’t even write on the package like Paraffin, Acetone, Trichlorofluoromethane, Carbon Disulfide, 2-Butanone, Trichloroethane, Trichloroethene, Carbon Tetrachloride, Tetrachloroethene, Chlorobenzene, Ethylbenzene, Styrene, Xylene, Phenol, Cresol and Cyclopentene. Most of them are VOCs and the majority of the AQI monitors with VOC sensor will recognize the toxins in the air. Now, when paraffin burned releases toluene and benzene which are highly toxic and carcinogens (these fumes are the same as when diesel is burnt).Read More »

Where are the Public Air Quality Stations?

Sotirios Papathanasiou2 Comments

In my city (Almeria, Spain) there are two stations that measure the local Air Quality.

Let’s analyze them and see if they are located in the correct places and if they feature the necessary instruments for measuring the AQI properly.

The Background

It is located in “El Boticario” a park 10km outside of the city center. The coordinates according to an official document from“Junta de Andalucía” are UTMX:554439 and UTMY:4080272, but they aren’t correct (Not so professional). The real coordinates are UTMX:554319 and UTMY:4080066. This station seems to work well although they don’t feed the data in real time to the public and quite often is down.

Read More »

Vitamin B and Air Pollution

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Vitamin B diminishes effects of air pollution

This is the new title many tweets and articles write about on media, but let’s take a step back. A pill will cure the problem! Well I don’t think so.

Of course we always have to eat well and healthy, lots of vegetables and fruit. The group of Vitamin B may help with the impact of fine particle pollution on cardiovascular disease (I won’t talk about the study), but please don’t lay your hopes on a pill. Air pollution is increasing and the only solution is decreasing our footprint by burning less to none coal and fossil fuels.

Giveaway One Digital Copy

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Enter the Giveaway for one Digital Copy of my book See The Air and learn everything about air pollution.

You have to retweet my tweet including the hashtag #SeeTheAirDigital and Follow me.

Good Luck!

See The Air: The Book

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See The Air

The Essential Guide For Optimal Air Quality In Your Life

After a long time of researching and writing all the essential information about air pollution and how you can improve the air quality for you and your community, the book is ready. I am very thrilled to share this book with you all and I will be even happier if you share it with your friends and family as well. I tried to keep it as simple as possible without unnecessary information. You can see the table of contents below and take a small idea of what is inside this book.Read More »

Air pollution and Eyesight

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eye dirt

There are more than 100 studies demonstrating that poor air quality and pollution can affect your respiratory system (lungs, throat, etc) but what about our vision and our eyes. Does air pollution affects our Eyes?

The short answer is yes! Think about how you feel when your eyes come in contact with pollen (in case you are allergic) or heavy smoke, they immediately become red and itchy! The effects of the air pollution have not been studied enough yet on the same way as on the respiratory system, but I am sure scientists are doing the best they can.Read More »

How to talk to people about Air Pollution

Sotirios Papathanasiou1 Comment

talk

It is very interesting how society works and how people get influenced. I am in my thirties which means I am not a wise old man despite of that I have done my own observations.

It hard to convince people that the climate is changing and global warming is true and even if they believe you they won’t do anything about it. The reason is simple, convenience! It is a lot easier for people to do the incorrect and easy than doing the right and more thoughtful. Some people also “think” that by coming in this world everything is theirs and somehow they can waste it.

Then education plays an import part, educational systems that are insufficient and wrong in many ways. Still teaching religion subjects at school even in higher levels of education instead of teaching about the environmental issues, how to respect the society actively and being an aware person and not egomaniac through consumerism.Read More »