Very interesting read! I agree pretty much that it would be good to have air purification systems everywhere.
However, im a little skeptical about all the costings as you mentioned them. If even today, the air purification systems dont cost all that much, why are we not seeing large scale research in this field? Something like choose 10,000 homes at random, fit 5000 with good air purification systems, wait a year and compare aggregate performances across various health indicators.
Thanks. I think part of an answer here is that air filters likely are a good buy for many households, but it takes time for adoption to pick up. Especially since, while adoption is low, it's a cost in itself to do one's own research — most claims to health-saving new gadgets are indeed bunk.
But I think another big part of the answer is just a lot of the benefits of air purification (and GUV light) are externalised. For a household, if you get sick your employer will probably cover your leave. For an employer, much of the cost of unclean air in your building comes from your employees spreading pathogens to other people.
Air filters are cheap, but not *so* cheap that it's a mystery why they're not already installed in every room, especially considering the cost of maintenance (which is largely the labour cost of replacing filters).
great!
Very interesting read! I agree pretty much that it would be good to have air purification systems everywhere.
However, im a little skeptical about all the costings as you mentioned them. If even today, the air purification systems dont cost all that much, why are we not seeing large scale research in this field? Something like choose 10,000 homes at random, fit 5000 with good air purification systems, wait a year and compare aggregate performances across various health indicators.
Thanks. I think part of an answer here is that air filters likely are a good buy for many households, but it takes time for adoption to pick up. Especially since, while adoption is low, it's a cost in itself to do one's own research — most claims to health-saving new gadgets are indeed bunk.
But I think another big part of the answer is just a lot of the benefits of air purification (and GUV light) are externalised. For a household, if you get sick your employer will probably cover your leave. For an employer, much of the cost of unclean air in your building comes from your employees spreading pathogens to other people.
Air filters are cheap, but not *so* cheap that it's a mystery why they're not already installed in every room, especially considering the cost of maintenance (which is largely the labour cost of replacing filters).
I do some workings here on costs and benefits: https://finmoorhouse.com/writing/clean-air/#appendix%3A-costs-and-benefits
And there's a bunch of good posts on the individual benefits here: https://dynomight.net/categories/air-quality/