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I recently moved to Kathmandu, Nepal (I'm a US citizen). The air quality is debilitating. All the gyms I've looked at (except the American Club which costs $100

I recently moved to Kathmandu, Nepal (I'm a US citizen). The air quality is debilitating. All the gyms I've looked at (except the American Club which costs $100/month) have open windows, so you are more or less unable to exercise unless you have a gym at home and an air purifier. We have an AP but when the wind blows the right direction our sensor reports sometimes as high as 200 - it comes in under the door (we are searching for a solution). Let's hope it never gets this bad in the US.

Vaskerville 7y ago
A friend visited recently, within three days with very little time outside, their throat was burning.
- throwawayhhakdl 7y ago
  Do locals suffer from symptoms like that?
  - Vaskerville 7y ago
    Yes.
randycupertino 7y ago
Here in California, insanely high levels of mercury have been found in cougars and mountain lions in the mountains between Santa Cruz and the Bay Area. Current research shows the fog has been picking up mercury from the ocean and delivery to our doorstep. I liked the infographic in this article: https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/Fog-brings-poison-mercury-to-Santa-Cruz-Mountains-14862445.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/Fog-brings-p... I think one of the problems is even with tough regulation that we have here in California, it's hard to control the actions of all individuals. We have "spare the air days" and half my neighbors houses still have smoke coming out of their chimneys on those days because they use wood to heat their homes. You can narc them out and report them however the current workaround is for them to claim it's backyard pizza ovens as there is a loophole for cooking food. When I leave for work in the morning or come home at night and see all the smoke rising laugh to myself that everyone we live nearby is having a massive backyard pizza party and we are not invited! :( There's also this ridiculously persistent anti electric vehicle roll coal trend happening right now on Tik Tok and platforms where the current fox tag objective a lot of people play on CB radios is to bag a Tesla - benchmark used to be to bag a Prius. I only know about this mainly because my old coworker commuted from Placerville to San Mateo and was obsessed with playing fox tag on his commutes (which would make sense if you're a mega commuter trying to stay awake so making up dumb nicknames with your friends and all keeping each other awake on your CB radios and talking as you drive sounds fun to you). Anyways... I've just sort of internalized the fact that more and more nonsmokers here are all going to die of lung cancer and hopefully the research and cell therapy trials will get there first before I and my family go out. :(
- creddit 7y ago
  > There's also this ridiculously persistent anti electric vehicle roll coal trend happening right now on Tik Tok and platforms where the current fox tag objective a lot of people play on CB radios is to bag a Tesla - benchmark used to be to bag a Prius. I only know about this mainly because my old coworker commuted from Placerville to San Mateo and was obsessed with playing fox tag on his commutes (which would make sense if you're a mega commuter trying to stay awake so making up dumb nicknames with your friends and all keeping each other awake on your CB radios and talking as you drive sounds fun to you). I don't really understand what this is. What do "fox tag" and "roll coal" mean?
  - js2 7y ago
    You can't believe how selfish and awful people can be till you see it in person, but: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal
  - runako 7y ago
    I don't know "fox tag" but here's rolling coal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal
  - MereInterest 7y ago
    Uncertain about "fox tag", but to "roll coal" is to intentionally bork up the emissions of your car, leaving a black cloud of smoke and stench behind one's car. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal
  - oftenwrong 7y ago
    This is "rolling coal": https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZdDxjge5hmY https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZdDxjge5hmY https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/07/rolling-coal-conservatives-who-show-their-annoyance-with-liberals-obama-and-the-epa-by-blowing-black-smoke-from-their-trucks.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/07/rolling-coal-con... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/05/business/energy-environment/rolling-coal-in-diesel-trucks-to-rebel-and-provoke.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/05/business/energy-environme...
BurningFrog 7y ago
> Let's hope it never gets this bad in the US It used to be that bad in the US, when it was as poor as Nepal is today.
- cafard 7y ago
  Actually, it was pretty nasty during periods of US prosperity.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Donora_smog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Donora_smog
  - BurningFrog 7y ago
    GDP per person was $14k in 1948. It's $58k now. Inflation adjusted, of course. https://www.multpl.com/us-real-gdp-per-capita/table/by-year https://www.multpl.com/us-real-gdp-per-capita/table/by-year
- mikestew 7y ago
  I wouldn't consider 70s-era Los Angeles "poor" by much of any standard.
jhallenworld 7y ago
You don't have to go so far to experience this: Guadalajara rush hour today is what LA was like in the 70s. https://aqicn.org/city/guadalajara/ https://aqicn.org/city/guadalajara/ But OMG, Nepal: http://aqicn.org/city/india/patna/igsc-planetarium-complex/ http://aqicn.org/city/india/patna/igsc-planetarium-complex/ Or New Delhi: http://aqicn.org/city/delhi/national-institute-of-malaria-research--sector-8--dwarka/ http://aqicn.org/city/delhi/national-institute-of-malaria-re...

Vaskerville 7y ago

A friend visited recently, within three days with very little time outside, their throat was burning.

throwawayhhakdl 7y ago
Do locals suffer from symptoms like that?
- Vaskerville 7y ago
  Yes.

randycupertino 7y ago

Here in California, insanely high levels of mercury have been found in cougars and mountain lions in the mountains between Santa Cruz and the Bay Area. Current research shows the fog has been picking up mercury from the ocean and delivery to our doorstep. I liked the infographic in this article: https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/Fog-brings-poison-mercury-to-Santa-Cruz-Mountains-14862445.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/Fog-brings-p... I think one of the problems is even with tough regulation that we have here in California, it's hard to control the actions of all individuals. We have "spare the air days" and half my neighbors houses still have smoke coming out of their chimneys on those days because they use wood to heat their homes. You can narc them out and report them however the current workaround is for them to claim it's backyard pizza ovens as there is a loophole for cooking food. When I leave for work in the morning or come home at night and see all the smoke rising laugh to myself that everyone we live nearby is having a massive backyard pizza party and we are not invited! :( There's also this ridiculously persistent anti electric vehicle roll coal trend happening right now on Tik Tok and platforms where the current fox tag objective a lot of people play on CB radios is to bag a Tesla - benchmark used to be to bag a Prius. I only know about this mainly because my old coworker commuted from Placerville to San Mateo and was obsessed with playing fox tag on his commutes (which would make sense if you're a mega commuter trying to stay awake so making up dumb nicknames with your friends and all keeping each other awake on your CB radios and talking as you drive sounds fun to you). Anyways... I've just sort of internalized the fact that more and more nonsmokers here are all going to die of lung cancer and hopefully the research and cell therapy trials will get there first before I and my family go out. :(

creddit 7y ago
> There's also this ridiculously persistent anti electric vehicle roll coal trend happening right now on Tik Tok and platforms where the current fox tag objective a lot of people play on CB radios is to bag a Tesla - benchmark used to be to bag a Prius. I only know about this mainly because my old coworker commuted from Placerville to San Mateo and was obsessed with playing fox tag on his commutes (which would make sense if you're a mega commuter trying to stay awake so making up dumb nicknames with your friends and all keeping each other awake on your CB radios and talking as you drive sounds fun to you). I don't really understand what this is. What do "fox tag" and "roll coal" mean?
- js2 7y ago
  You can't believe how selfish and awful people can be till you see it in person, but: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal
- runako 7y ago
  I don't know "fox tag" but here's rolling coal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal
- MereInterest 7y ago
  Uncertain about "fox tag", but to "roll coal" is to intentionally bork up the emissions of your car, leaving a black cloud of smoke and stench behind one's car. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal
- oftenwrong 7y ago
  This is "rolling coal": https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZdDxjge5hmY https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZdDxjge5hmY https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/07/rolling-coal-conservatives-who-show-their-annoyance-with-liberals-obama-and-the-epa-by-blowing-black-smoke-from-their-trucks.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/07/rolling-coal-con... https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/05/business/energy-environment/rolling-coal-in-diesel-trucks-to-rebel-and-provoke.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/05/business/energy-environme...

BurningFrog 7y ago

> Let's hope it never gets this bad in the US It used to be that bad in the US, when it was as poor as Nepal is today.

cafard 7y ago
Actually, it was pretty nasty during periods of US prosperity.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Donora_smog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Donora_smog
- BurningFrog 7y ago
  GDP per person was $14k in 1948. It's $58k now. Inflation adjusted, of course. https://www.multpl.com/us-real-gdp-per-capita/table/by-year https://www.multpl.com/us-real-gdp-per-capita/table/by-year
mikestew 7y ago
I wouldn't consider 70s-era Los Angeles "poor" by much of any standard.

jhallenworld 7y ago

You don't have to go so far to experience this: Guadalajara rush hour today is what LA was like in the 70s. https://aqicn.org/city/guadalajara/ https://aqicn.org/city/guadalajara/ But OMG, Nepal: http://aqicn.org/city/india/patna/igsc-planetarium-complex/ http://aqicn.org/city/india/patna/igsc-planetarium-complex/ Or New Delhi: http://aqicn.org/city/delhi/national-institute-of-malaria-research--sector-8--dwarka/ http://aqicn.org/city/delhi/national-institute-of-malaria-re...