Yikes! This is the air right outside my DC house just now. The PM2.5 level translates to an AQI of 432! Air seems more metallic than smoky. Definitely not healthy to be outside around here, especially without a mask. (Glad I have my mask)
53
Replies
·
0
Boosts
@mattblaze when you built a house, you didn't expect disaster to find you.
with the coming global crisis, how will you find a safe zone anywhere?
@mattblaze What are the numbers inside?
@mattblaze We aren't suffering from Canadian wildfires smoke (yet)... Hope y'all remain safe - in CA and Your area. ❤️🩹
@mattblaze I don't think I understand this device? these numbers??? Anything crawling into the 50's and above causes ME issues [yes, preexisting physical conditions, but I doubt I'd be able to exist in THOSE numbers!?] Must be measurements and readout differences, right? I'm scared. I've never even seen the local to me readings exceed 70 or so. MUST be the device and readings, right? RIGHT?!
😵
@mattblaze yikes! That's horrid.
Gonna sound like Ben here, but have you seen the posts about building a Corsi Rosenthal box to purify the air inside your home? I think it's going to be essential for all indoor spaces.
@mattblaze username checks out
@kuba Wildfires in Canada.
The official reading for the city is 235 right now - still unhealthy, but considerably lower than right here. So this is some relatively local effect.
As the day has gone on, AQI in both the city as a whole and in my neighborhood has dropped to merely "unhealthy" levels of about 190. Definitely still masking up when I have to go outdoors. The smoke smell is still a bit off from a typical wildfire, which makes me wonder about the composition.
Aside: AQI ("Air Quality Index") is an odd term - a lower quality index means better air.
@mattblaze We were in the 700s yesterday locally (Detroit) and some points in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan hit 1000 (!). Anything above 300 is “Hazardous” but it feels like we need more levels, sadly.
@jcr Wow. I didn't realize 1000 was even possible.
@mattblaze wildfire smoke smell seems to change the further it travels and the longer it hangs on the air, in addition to what exactly burnt.
Sadly in western Canada we are used to semi-regularly having AQI between 50 and 200 (poor to unhealthy) all summer long, every year now :/
@mattblaze my Corsi-Rosenthal filter is doing its job today, for sure
@jqheywood I have a fancy (quiet) air purifier in the bedroom and a rigged together Corsi-Rosenthal box in the basement office and wow am I ever glad to have them right now.
@mattblaze When we first started getting wildfire smoke in Seattle a few years back, I had thought a burning forest would smell like a a fireplace fire. No idea that it was much more like burning garbage.
@mattblaze losing some components along the thousand mile trip?
@mattblaze here in the eastern end of Toronto, it's been blue sky and excellent visibility all day, but I can see it beginning to "smoke over": the sky is more orange and the visibility is not so good.
@nxskok Did Toronto get hit pretty hard with this a few days ago?
This is also definitely not a good day to take up the German practice of regular "house burping" and opening all the windows a few times a day. Happy to live in a hermetically sealed microenvironment at the moment. (AQI was about 25 in my bedroom when it was over 400 ouside this morning).
@mattblaze It took me a while to realize that you meant "Stoßlüften". I find your translation... ehm... amusing 😂
@mattblaze as a German, let me just ask, wtf is house burping?
Do you mean the honored tradition of Stoßlüften?
@mattblaze
We have window vents and a house ventilation fan for that in the Netherlands. We also have a substantially lower homicide rate 🤗
@mattblaze Our old house is not hermetically sealed and inside seems to hang around 20% of outside PM2.5 based on our A/C filters alone. But our Corsi-Rosenthal box knocks us down to about 8% of outside levels. This is very good since our PM2.5 exceeded 350 for hours overnight!
Public Health preparation FTW.
@mattblaze My former house in the Berkshires had a (required-by-code) energy recovery ventilator. If I were there now, I'd turn it off—yes, the intake air is filtered, but not nearly well enough for this sort of situation.
And yes, I never thought I'd be this happy that the outside AQI was 180…
@mattblaze .....Now wondering if running my exhaust fan counts as "house farting".
@mattblaze possibly a similar reason that in statistics, Survival Analysis is called that rather than Death Analysis. (Or even the less catchy Time-to-Event analysis.)
@mattblaze Yikes! (Glad it’s getting better).
@mattblaze it gets bad when it starts to make sense to talk about pm2.5 as g per cubic meter...
But Trump will invade Canada and put out the fires!
)
@mattblaze - I'm just south of you, so yay...
Regarding masks, do you know if the N95 masks are a decent enough filter for this?
@tinker
Oof, assuming indeed "95% filtering", PM2.5 is still going to be around 15, which is the recommendation for staying under... But that's still a huge improvement. There's going to be some chemical contaminants those masks won't be able to do that much about, but, nonetheless, huge improvement.
If you can, elastomeric respirator with P100 filter will be even better, especially combined with a charcoal chemical absorption filter.
@mattblaze
@viq @mattblaze - Noted. Thank you!
@tinker Probably not for really extended exposure. If I needed to spend all day outside (in the heat?) I’d probably prefer an N99 or P100. But I suspect N95 is fine for short intervals.
@mattblaze - I need to up my mask game.
(Not joking) I think its time to add hooks to next to the door. In addition to keys, backpacks, hats/scarves, I'll have one for masks.
Anyhoo! Cheers for the info and stay safe!
@tinker I’m continuing to really like my Flo Mask Pro.
wow that sucks for AQI Matt
@mattblaze what air quality meter are you using? Or is this just the screen of several devices on the outside?
