From the desk of Harsh Strongman
Subj: The most important $150 you’ll ever spend
This post is relevant to you if you live in India or any other third world country.
Winter is here and this means high levels of pollution in your city and home.
Just look outside your window and you can see that the air is smokier than it used to be in the winter.
This happens because of something called inversion – during winters, the air close to ground becomes colder than the air in the sky (as hot air rises up) and makes it harder for particulate matter to “go away” with the wind.
The pollution gets trapped and your air becomes unhealthy to breathe.
The pollution has many causes from stubble burning to vehicles but at the end of the day – your air is unhealthy to breathe in the winter.
This is true regardless of which city you live in India and most of the third world. Winter air is full of smog.
You are smoking cigarettes without realizing it.
I bought a pretty little device from amazon to measure the pollution levels.
PM 2.5 is about 114.
PM 2.5 of 114 means that there are 114 particles of particulate matter (PM) that are 2.5 microns or less per cubic meter.
In many Indian cities, PM 2.5 levels regularly break 400 in winters.
This is horrible for your internal organs, especially your lungs.
PM 2.5 levels of 115 is already very poor. 400+ is INSANELY bad for you.
If you go out for a walk in such polluted air, you are making your health worse, not better.
You are smoking without knowing it.
Yeah, that dirty disgusting habit of smoking that fucks up people’s stamina and organ health – you’re doing that.
Exposure to an average PM 2.5 level of 22 for day is equivalent to smoking 1 cigarette.
By breathing air at PM 2.5 levels of 114, I’m smoking over 5 cigarettes per day in the winters. This is without me ever touching a cigarette.
If you live in high pollution cities where the PM 2.5 levels cross 500, you’re smoking tens of cigarettes a day without realizing it.
Yes, that’s more than a pack a day.
Of course, you’re reading LMM so you’re not dumb enough to buy a cigarette and smoke it, but you’re inhaling the equivalent amount of smoke anyway.
Your body is taking damage with every breath you take.
Buy an air purifier.
Buy an air purifier.
They are cheap and highly effective.
Get one with a HEPA filter that doesn’t generate ozone.
HEPA filters filter out pretty much all particular matter from the air. Ozone at ground level is bad for human health even though some companies market it as a “feature”.
Don’t spend too much money on an “expensive” purifier because they’re just a fan and a HEPA filter.
The cheap and the expensive ones are equally as effective. You’re just paying extra for shape and design. The HEPA filter is the same.
There’s many brands out there and I’ve tried about 5 of them.
They are very cheap (~$120 each) and prevent you from passive smoking all the pollution.
Recommended Air Purifiers
1) Coway AirMega 150
It’s the air purifier I use in my bedroom.
Nice and silent (far more silent than option #2) so it doesn’t disturb your sleep.
Also unlike #2 it doesn’t have a bright LED display that can’t be turned off so it won’t light up your room when the lights are off.
If you’re buying for your bedroom, this is a no-brainer.
2) Xiaomi MI Air Purifier
The MI purifier displays the PM 2.5 levels as a number (the Coway one just shows blue-green-yellow-red lights depending on air quality but doesn’t quantify anything).
It also has WiFi and voice control and other techy bells and whistles like that. I’m not particularly sure why you’d like voice control on an air purifier, but if you want it, it’s there.
It looks much sexier than the Coway (Coway is a dull boring white box) and I use the MI Air Purifier for my gym and hall.
It is much noisier and has a bright light you can’t turn off so don’t buy this for your bedroom.
How to Use an Air Purifier Effectively
I’ve recommended many of my friends and relatives to get an air purifier and some have. They typically don’t use it correctly.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Plug it in and leave it on 24/7/365.
- Vacuum the pre-filter when the indicator tells you to.
- Replace the HEPA filter when the indicator tells you it needs a replacement (typically needs to be done every year).
I’ve seen people do absurd shit so here’s a list of what not to do:
- Don’t leave your windows open. If you leave your windows open, your air purifier is being wasted as the purified air is being blown out and “fresh” polluted air is being blown in your house.
- Don’t turn it on for an hour and then turn it off. You aren’t saving any electricity (the energy expenditure of the fan in your air purifier is minimal) and you’re just hurting your lungs as air is fluid and gets dirty again fast.
- Don’t just have one purifier for your entire house. Do you think the purified air from your bedroom is also purifying the air in your hall or your other rooms? It’s not. You need an air purifier in every room. They are cheap as hell so just get them.
- Don’t think your AC purifies air. Unless your AC unit explicitly says it has a HEPA filter, it’s not purifying air. It’s just cooling it. You can delude yourself into thinking that the AC air is clean but it’s your lungs not mine.
- Don’t just leave it off all day. It is not a show piece. The fact that so many people never turn on their purifier (“I forget to turn it on”) shows how little average people care about their health. No wonder so many of them are becoming asthmatic.
In conclusion
If you live in India, you’re probably smoking 5 to 20 cigarettes every day in the winter simply because of the insane pollution levels.
This is damaging to your body and unlike regular smoking – you’re not even enjoying it.
I mean, if I have to breathe in a ton of smoke, I’d rather just smoke a cigarette and breathe clean air than breathe dirty air and get no pleasure for the damage.
The simple solution is to buy an air purifier. Get one for every room in your house and leave it turned on 24/7.
Keep the windows closed so you’re not getting all the outside pollution in your house.
You’d think everyone would be using air purifiers in third world countries because of the insane pollution here but the vast majority of third world people are cheap as hell and do not care about their health.
Even if they can easily afford it, they’d rather keep an extra $150 in the bank than buy an air purifier and pay for electricity even if it means smoking an equivalent of 10+ cigarettes per day.
Of course we have a brain so we aren’t one of them. We have an air purifier for every room and hall of the house. Health is wealth and breathing in pollution just to save money is dumb as hell.
Hope this helps.
Your man,
Harsh Strongman
P.S. I highly recommend the Coway AirMega 150 air purifier. I’ve used it for over a year now and I have it in my bedroom.
