Comments 1 - 35 of 35 Search these comments
Smoke from the catastrophic Camp Fire continues to plague much of central and northern California, bringing dangerously high levels of fine particulate pollution (PM2.5, particles less than 2.5 microns or 0.0001 inch in diameter). Hourly levels of PM2.5 were in the red “Unhealthy” range at more than 30 official EPA monitors across the region Thursday morning, with seven stations reporting purple “Very Unhealthy” conditions.
Two stations near the Camp Fire recorded PM2.5 levels on Thursday morning well into the maroon “hazardous” range—the highest level of danger on EPA’s Air Quality Index (AQI) scale. At this level, EPA warns that “this would trigger a health warnings of emergency conditions." Chico had PM2.5 levels at a suffocating 333 μg/m3 for several hours on Thursday morning, which is nearly ten times higher than the 24-hour PM2.5 standard of 35 μg/m3. The Woolsey fire near Los Angeles was mostly blowing out to sea, and thus air quality in Southern California was generally acceptable.
Light winds are expected over most of California’s smoke-affected areas through Saturday, keeping the air pollution levels dangerously high. On Sunday, a developing upper-level low pressure system will drive more of an onshore flow of air from the ocean, which may cause a modest reduction in the smoke. True relief from the smoke, however, will likely not occur until Wednesday or Thursday next week, when a major Pacific storm system is expected to move into California, potentially bringing the state its first significant rain of November.
Does anyone have one of the AQI sensors, like from https://www.purpleair.com/ ?
If so, please try this experiment for me:
* set up a box fan in the middle of the room where the sensor is
* drape a damp towel over the input side of the fan, so it gets sucked against the fan
(you may want the fan on low to keep the electrical load low, so the fan doesn't burn out)
* check the AQI with the fan on for an hour, and then again with the fan off for an hour
Personally, I think a damp towel against a fan definitely helped the air quality in my house, but it would be nice to have objective numbers.
go outside to smoke that cigarette.
HeadSet saysgo outside to smoke that cigarette.
If ppl insist on smoking, they're part of the smoke problem, so why should they bother avoiding smoke? If you're going to poison yourself, you might as well go all out.
It's probably less harmful to smoke a pack a day of cigarettes than this shit in the air. Particulates aren't just burned wood, they are fungi, moss, mold, mushrooms, toadstools, lichens, protozoa crap, tree and brush parasites, pitch, and with buildings, an extra helping of asbestos, formalin, plasticizers, lead and metals.
Masks only help a bit, because the path of least resistance is still around the edges of the mask for inhalation, and nobody likes to wear a mask for any length of time.
potentially bringing the state its first significant rain of November.
Next on the agenda. mud slides.
HeadSet sayspotentially bringing the state its first significant rain of November.
Next on the agenda. mud slides.
And then the big earthquake.
When the smoke is that bad, do your farts still stink?
Is the air quality in California worse than China yet?
While California is covered with wildfires & smoke, Gov. Jerry Brown Spends $33 Million To Defend Illegals from Deportation.
https://newspunch.com/jerry-brown-defend-illegals-deportation/
Pretty cool, interactive, gives different health impacts of the different numbers.