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Comment by malwarebytess | Hacker News Reader

I worry about the consequences of prolonged exposure. There is historical precedent that shows we should be concerned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog_of_London

Coal smoke in that case, not wood smoke. Coal is a terrible pollutant. If you survive the wood smoke, the literature suggests you'll be back to normal in a couple weeks.

Source? What makes combustion particulates from coal substantially worse than combustion particulates from wood?

Coal can have radioactive materials inside of it. There's radioactive carbon (c14) and it looks like also a bunch of more concerning materials.

[] - https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-....

Regarding carbon-14, there is so little of it that it makes no sense to even think about it (about 1 in 10^12 atoms). In addition, all biological matter (including you and the food you eat) has carbon-14 present in it -- that's the basic principle behind carbon dating. In fact, ash from wood burning would probably have more carbon-14 if anything.

But yes, the article you linked talks about trace amounts of uranium and other materials that actually could be harmful.

The half life of C-14 is much shorter than geologic formation time for coal. Coal's radioactivity is due to primordial nuclides and their decay chains.

How does the radioactivity from coal compare with the radioactivity from bananas?

Sulfur is a big one. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal

Leading to, for example, acid rain.

Also just a guess, coal is a finer particulate matter than wood, I think that might give more particles off. Wood dust, nope, coal dust? Hell no. Also radioactive!

> Source?

This one is easy to research. I'm not trying to convince you of anything, just being helpful.

Spreading dangerous misinformation is not helpful, and you are trying to convince them of something- namely that this air pollution is no big deal.

PM2.5 pollution, even at levels far lower than being seen now, is associated with literally hundreds of negative outcomes- lower IQ, worse test scores in standardized tests, more depression, worse ADHD, more asthma, more cancers (of both the lungs and other body parts), emphysema, as well as a whole host of issues related to full-body inflammation (ranging from auto-immune disorders to digestive problems).

I didn't say, "No big deal." I am aware of the danger. Thus, "if you survive."

The issues you're describing are studied after what I'd say is long term exposure. So far it's less than a week. A person with healthy lungs and no related problems will be back to normal if this ceases in a relatively short time. Of course, that doesn't mean we should relax about smoke season becoming a month-long annual event.

They say dosage makes the poison, but duration is important, too.

Wood is made of complex carbohydrates (lignins). The worst thing you’ll get in the smoke is carbon particles and maybe a small amount of aromatic hydrocarbons like benzene.

Coal is made of up of a mixture of aromatic hydrocarbons like a anthracene, naphthalene. These are already toxic to humans. Add metals like mercury, antimony, etc.

Coal smoke is much worse than wood smoke.

It's not the wood I'm worried about, it's all the non-organic material in the smoke. Plastic, household chemicals, paint, etc... In some years we'll see a massive spike in cancer and respiratory issues from these fires.

I doubt there is a significant enough amount of those materials being burned. Millions of acres of forest has burned compared to relatively few buildings.

Doesn’t coal burn more cleanly than wood?

Edit: I was probably thinking of smokeless coal which is processed to burn more cleanly.

It depends on the grade of coal. If you're burning anthracite, yes. If you're burning lignite... no.

I would make the educated guess that the reason wood smoke is OK is because we have thousands of years of evolution to be more tolerant of wood smoke.

You would hope, but no. Wood smoke is still deadly.[0]

[0]https://www.stoveteam.org/why-stoves

“more tolerant” is what I said. Evolution is mostly a slow process and can never reach perfection.

An evolutionary force that is too strong just kills a species.

Close to a million years by the best guess.

Which is thousands of years... about a thousand such thousands.

Rightly so. Smoke inside the house is a leading cause of death. [0]

[0]https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/household-a...

Would be interesting to know the AQI numbers for London back in the day.

I can see how it may be too late for that...

That smog was mostly caused by coal and highly localized.

Inhaling smoke is bad for your health, absolutely, but I fail to see many similarities between the two situations.

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