65 karma · joined December 13, 2021
It's like me saying a bowl of soup is useless without a spoon. And you go quote me as, "a bowl of soup is useless".
You are arguing with yourself
I have found a way to make it 2 years on a 1y prescription.
You can get "myopic glasses" on eBay for real cheap, like 7$, without a prescription. They feel cheap, but the lenses work.
Contact lense websites will let you order as long as you have a valid prescription so I just buy a years worth when I get the prescription and again right before the prescription ends.
Separate issue is the contact lense websites are getting predatory and just add 200$ convenience fee at the checkout. Really annoying, I found one website that doesn't but I imagine if everyone else is doing it they can't stand their ground for long.
It's not "fair" and "equal" that someone who isn't working gets paid, but we need to take care of those who need help the most.
Equity had tradeoffs, equality has tradeoffs too. I think equity sounds like a more appropriate word for what a union does. Do you disagree?
I did! Thank you, don't know how convection ovens got in my head.
> gas emits many times the amount of PM2.5 as electric
You are right. Gas stoves are worse on all air quality metrics, and the actual food cooking is only a tiny source of PM.
In your experience is cooking on induction still the #1 poor air quality cause in your house?
vinegar and a squeegee > water and sponge > spray cleaner
Regardless, I agree with you. If the filter prevents you from breathing X% bacteria and y% of bacteria produce endotoxins then your choices are
-Breathe in that extra x% bacteria and have them produce xy endotoxins directly in your lungs
-Kill the bacteria but breather in their xy endotoxins that are dispersed in the air.
Seems like a zero sum game when
1) If you are lucky enough to live in an area with clean air, opening a window is orders of magnitude quicker and more effective way to clean air.
2) Gas stoves are the worst thing you can do to your house air (a fume Hood can partially mitigate this)
3) You should be weary of using any cleaning product without ventilation (open windows for a whole day)
4) HEPA filters work, but slowly. Realize you can sneeze into these things and some % of your sneeze goes right through/around the filter. They need multiple passes to fully clean the air. Big quiet HEPA filters are the way to go.
5) Activated Carbon filters grab the stuff HEPA can't but they are very slow at it, and I haven't found anything commercial that works. The thin black layer on filters doesn't work, you need something more commercial like the ones people use when they are home growing weed. IMO, the effect of these is really hard to measure and I wouldn't personally suggest this right now.
6) Humidity control is important for health and has a relationship to air particulates
All of this work and basically I open windows any nice days, when I'm cleaning, and when I cook. Many HEPA filters and a beefy carbon filter cant compete with this. Even if it means running up the heat/AC bill a bit. I'm considering some sort of heat exchanger with filters in the future, but that is overkill. I am privileged to have nice air outside though and I realize this isn't THE solution for everyone.
As far as this article goes. HEPA filters are supposed to be replaced every 6 months, but even older filters get rid of so many particulates that we KNOW are bad for you it seems worth this tradeoff. Maybe a HEPA filter with a UV light could help (not by much probably), but be weary of "24 stage filters" and all that nonsense. HEPA is all most houses really need.