Do VOC detectors detect what they claim to detect? We have established earlier that VOC detectors cannot agree on what is the “Safe Limits” of VOC here. What if we buy a detector that detects only one type of gas? There are VOC detectors that claim to detect specifically. Shouldn’t this solve the problem where […]
Author: Thomas Talhelm
Thomas is a new Assistant Professor of Behavior Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the founder of Smart Air, a social enterprise to help people in China breathe clean air without shelling out thousands of dollars for expensive purifiers.
Is being in a high pollution city like Delhi India really like smoking a pack a day healthwise?
Comparing air pollution to smoking is a dangerous question. Honest observers (like Richard Saint Cyr MD and Richard Muller) have come up with wildly different answers, from 1/6th of a cigarette a day, to four a day, to claims of 21 cigarettes a day. Here’s why they’re all right. Two Fundamentally Different Ways of Asking the Question One of the points […]
Can we measure air pollution simply by looking at the sky?
Sometimes I hear people say air pollution is invisible. But after years of living in Beijing and Delhi, I’ve been amazed at how well we can detect air pollution with our eyes. But it’s a bit complicated. If you’re not thinking about it, it’s easy to overlook. I discovered that when I spent […]
Should purifiers have the filter on the front or back?
When I made my first DIY purifier, I put the filter on the front: It turned out that I wasn’t the only one interested in breathing clean air in China, so I started a small social enterprise called Smart Air to ship these low-cost purifiers to fellow-air breathers who don’t have $1,000 to blow on […]
How do people in Beijing exercise with such bad air pollution?
I’m in Beijing right now, and I’m going to exercise today. So what can I do when the world outside my window looks like this? Would exercise do more harm than good? 1. The point where exercise becomes harmful Researchers at Cambridge analyzed studies on the benefits of exercise and the harms of […]
Protect yourself from cities with bad air pollution: A Beginner’s Guide
So you’ve arrived to a polluted city–Beijing or Bangalore, Delhi or Shanghai. What can you do to keep air pollution from trimming years off your life? When I moved to China in 2007, I wasn’t a dummy. I was a college grad, and I knew about air pollution. But I knew almost nothing about protecting […]
Is Molekule really better than similarly priced air purifiers already on the market?
Over this last Christmas, I was at home on the couch, and my dad asked me if I’ve seen this new purifier he saw an ad for. He asked not because he’s interested in purifiers, not because I’m some PhD in fluid mechanics (I’m a cultural psychologist, not a physicist), but because I’ve […]
3 Things You Need to Know About Formaldehyde: Part Two
OK, my home has formaldehyde in it. How long will it take to get back to normal? When researching this question, I really wanted to see tests in real-world apartments. I want to understand how formaldehyde acts in real homes, not in a laboratory plexiglass container. That’s critical because sometimes people take results from […]
3 Things You Need to Know About Formaldehyde: Part One
Have you ever moved into a newly remodeled apartment and smelled that chemical, remodeling smell? I’m very much not an expert in air pollution, but I am very much a dedicated nerd. And i’ve spent the last five years of my nerd energy on researching and testing formaldehyde in China. This series shares the three […]
Chengdu pollution now worse than Beijing
I just analyzed Chengdu’s PM2.5 pollution data for the first half of 2018, and there’s a surprise. Chengdu barely edged out Beijing! Someone get those pandas a mask. The difference is small—1 microgram. But it’s notable because Beijing is famous for its pollution, whereas Chengdu is not. My guess is lots of […]