Should You Trust Your City's Air?

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Jake and Sam are worried about the air quality in the studio, so Niko decides to get to the bottom of it. Is Los Angeles' air quality really as bad as everyone says?

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[Mangalex]

Air quality engineer here (yup, we exist):

1: This instrument is probably crap. Using this kind of instrument is like saying "it's between 0 and 50". A real instrument (used by France or the US EPA) is roughly the size of a small fridge and costs between 20-40k $. A state of the art one costs 400k $. They also take dayyys to calibrate and get working, need stable conditions, etc...

2: Yes, there's no way the PM2.5 was at 5 µg/m3 near that highway

3: BUT the most important thing, you guys measured the "instant" concentration. You pulled the instrument out and measured. But PM10 or PM2.5 are measured on year or day average. Let's say your instrument is decent, you'd have to let it run for at least a day (outside or in the office) without moving it and in stable conditions and see what the daily average is. The World Health Organization recommends that PM2.5 doesn't exceed 10 µg/m3... on a year average (25 µg/m3 daily average).

4: Nico, you're right, LA's air right now is probably way better than it was a few decades ago. You're also right about the instrument being a particle reader and ignoring all the rest.

5: Sam, what you're smelling is mostly gases (from car exhausts) so yeah, technically the instrument reading particles could say "hey, the air is fine" but your nose can smell all the gases the instrument can not read. That being said, gases and particles are often emitted together (in combustion engines for instance).

I'm french and, in school, we often used LA as a bad example: you got a massive city, spreading across a huge surface, with shit public transport, in a hot environment (almost a desert), with mountains all around you blocking the air flow.
Not sure who's in charge of measuring the air quality in each state but I would "blindly" trust any decent organization measuring it in the US (EPA, universities, labs). As far as I know, your government doesn't interfere with this, no matter who's in charge (Obama, Trump). It's just guys like you and me doing their jobs.

Locking yourself up in a confined space is the worst you can do. Inside air quality if often worse than outside because of poor air recycling, although the pollutants aren't the same. What you could get is a CO2 analyzer (cheap and reliable) and put it your back office. Because CO2 is "harmless" but does cause headaches, sleepiness and loss of focusing abilities.


Sorry for poor english, I'm French!

[rockdragon]

"they're just PRETENDING to play hacky sack"
*hacky sack flies over computer screens*

[devixel]

1st: Can you trust your city's water?
2nd: Can you trust your city's air?

3rd: Can you trust your city?

[ChamberK-]

“Everyone hold it in”

Wren is great.

[oj]

“Not being able to breath sucks” Wes 2019

[dominicdo]

It's smells like "subscribe"
Oh man that got me

[thealxder]

You guys need to measure when you're 3D printing. A recent study just showed that they release a bunch of ultrafine particles (UFP) and volatile organic chemicals (VOC). Those things are carcinogens, in the studio you should be fine because there's a lot of volume but it's bad when you stand next to the printer. PLA is the best and ABS is the worst. Everyone who has a printer needs to know it's better not to hang around a printer when it's printing

[aqwbnt]

“Air quality is subjective” - RIP quotes 2019

[auron]

Jokes on you, I stopped breathing 5 years ago.

[irishmchealey]

Corridor crew: **freaking out about China's air quality**

Me(who comes from Hong Kong): hehehe you have no idea. **looks behind me at my school issued dusk/gas mask**

[maxx]

I recommend doing a oxygen percent test. That is when ventilation changes the outcome

[ryan]

"DO NOT Go onto roof for any reason except emergency" Corridor, Corridor Crew, and Node all start sweating.

[ArtsStudios]

I’m always open to channels changing their content over time as that’s natural and art changes and grows. Seeing the vfx artists react and singular deep dives have been nice, but it was so nice to see the little asides like wren’s heeleys again. ❤️

[thelieutenant]

China: dammit our air is in the danger zone
Chinese Government: just raise the danger standards so then it looks like we are fine

[konichiyawa]

CCrew: "Should you trust your city's air"
Me: "Good thing I brought my mountain air with me"

[sethledauphin]

Next 2 videos:
Can you trust your city’s Fire?
Can you trust your city’s Earth?

[CoolPsyco]

Corridor Crew: Can you trust your city's air?
Me live in indonesia with literal silent hill smoke fog: *OH YEAH 100%*

[pureoakgaming]

I live in Singapore, where the Indonesia Fire Haze has been heavily impacted our city, hospitalizing many. Thank you for making a video to help spread awareness of air quality!

[thegoblet]

How does Niko manage to be so friendly yet terrifying?

[RanOutOfSpac]

I've lived in LA all my life. 15-20 years ago I'd walk to school basically everyday. About a two mile journey. My nose and throat would actually burn from being exposed to the open air for those trips, and it'd be way worse if I were running. My area was especially bad, being near a freeway and a massive gasoline factory thingy. Nowadays, I can pretty much inhale all the street juice air I want and I don't get that same burning feeling. There's definitely been a decent improvement.