If you’re reading this, the chances are you already understand that air pollution can have serious health consequences. At almost all levels of contamination, the air in our homes, places of work and cars, as well as outside, makes our health worse. Without going into which conditions are caused or affected again here, as there are just too many to mention, each and every one of us and our families would benefit from being immersed in less pollution.
Plain Air exists to show you that there are practical solutions but, as we have written before, many people find it hard to motivate themselves to action when the effects of pollution, and the damage caused by it, are perceived to be far in the future. For the same reason many people still smoke, because the effects of pollution aren’t immediate, the mind can easily persuade you that the effects may never happen to you and, even if they do, it’s too far away to worry about just now.
After all, we all know of someone who smoked every day and lived to 95. And we’ve all lived and breathed air pollution our whole lives and what harm has it ever actually done to us so far?
It’s true that, if you, or someone you know, has a health condition it can difficult for even a medical professional to be absolutely sure what caused it. Whilst virtually any respiratory condition is worsened by air pollution, it’s hard to tell how much the pollution is contributing and, if you can’t tell what effect it’shaving, why even bother doing anything about it.
Well it turns out there is actually one very good way of being able to actually feel the impact pollution is having on us. If we remove or reduce the pollution we’re breathing in it actually has a real, beneficial effect within a week. Yes, even though the damage behind the scenes may have been accumulating for years, there is often an almost immediate improvement when air quality improves.
The Forum of International Respiratory Societies found that a temporary set of roads closures in Atlanta for the 1996 Olympics, and a year-long shutdown of a steel mill both caused asthma related hospital visits to fall by 40% - a truly astonishing effect. Premature births were also reduced and, Nigerian women given clean-burning stoves had healthier babies and fewer deaths in the first days of the babies lives.
An 8 month smelter’s strike in the USA saw a 2.5% reduction in death rates overall, and banning indoor smoking in Ireland resulted in heart attacks falling by 26% and strokes by 32%.
These effects of pollution are far greater than most people ever imagined. Action in the US via the Clean Air Act is estimated to have saved 32 times as much in healthcare as it cost, demonstrating that considered expenditure on reducing pollution at a personal level should be seen as an overall reduction in cost rather than just an initial outlay.
We believe that buying the right purification equipment for your home, office and car represents perhaps the best value healthcare money can buy. With the pollution from each and every hour spent in your car reducing your life, and your family’s, by up to 5 mins, cleaner air is, statistically, a better investment than an air bag
It’s hard to see the effect pollution is having on your life, until you take away the pollution. Try it.
