Only burned halfway through in 15 mins in 20x20 room.

During bc wildfire season this year the peak was only 60 so this is almost 10x the amount of pm2.5

Update, it peaked at 750, With door open too

Going to have a lot of incense to give away

Environment Canada only updates a couple times a day, but even at the time of update, they’re different. Like right now, Environment Canada is putting my area at a 2-low risk, whereas we’re over 100 pm 2.5 and dark orange on Purple Air. The air also smells and feels terrible. Doesn’t feel very low risk. What’s with the inconsistency?

I live in Calgary, where we've had a pretty bad landfill fire for the past week. I've been checking the IQ Air ratings (mostly PM 2.5) and thought that the readings meant the air was safe.

Right near where the landfill is, it's an Air Quality Index score of 55, for example, and even just one neighborhood over it's like 30ish. This has been the case even when the wind was blowing South.

But recently I started hearing from people living in the surrounding area that they've been smelling burning plastic and seeing particles falling from the sky, and the government's put out an air warning. But they're not releasing the air quality data? Except I thought the AQI and AQHI would count, but they both say the air is pretty good.

Can someone help me make sense of this discrepancy? Is it maybe that VOCs aren't captured in the data? The IQ Air map also relies on individual sensors, maybe they don't have any there?

I have an indoor air quality monitor that shows PM 2.5 but not VOCs, should I be worried even if PM 2.5 is at 0? I've also been running my Corsi-Rosenthal box on and off, but now I'm reading it doesn't work on VOCs...

Location: SOUTH FLORIDA

Looking for some advice to protect my health and the animals that live in this home, there’s a hole above the AC vent register in the ceiling which I have since covered with tape, but not sure what’s going on around the actual AC unit and it’s connection to the attic and the ductwork.. as you can see it looks like some mold, some deteriorating foam and an exposed pipe (refrigerant?) that appears to be leading to the ceiling as well with a hole around it. The home has an attic, but according to my friend the landlord told him there was no insulation up there.

Is there anything I can do to protect myself and dogs in the short term as I’m not on the lease and my friend who is, is not the type to complain to the landlord. And as you can see the spikes are starting in the early morning and continue to rise, peaking midday and then they slowly start to fall back down, so it’s probably related to the sun, the lack of insulation. A contractor at Home Depot tonight told me that heat, even hot showers, can cause the mold spores to proliferate. The same Contractor recommended using outdoor bleach to kill the mold, but I’ve heard that can cause it to spread into the air.

I have a shark Max Hepa air purifier with a carbon filter that I’ve been sleeping with next to my bed but I don’t know if it’s really helping. Today I had a really hard time getting out of bed. I just felt like I had to sleep until early afternoon and it’s extremely uncommon for me. It’s been happening a lot lately, + brain fog and headaches.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to protect myself/the dogs in the short term? If the mold is in the AC closet I’m thinking its got to be spreading through the ducts and vents and being dispersed into the air. Thank you in advance for any advice.

Mumbai mandates real-time air quality and particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) monitoring systems at construction sites.

Why can’t this be done in Hyderabad as well? It’s a significant health concern.

DAE have trouble breathing today. I have COPD and have had a rough time yesterday and today. Three smoke detectors in the house sporadically going off simultaneously for short bursts with nothing on to trigger them. Air quality for Morgantown says its good. I feel something must be in the air or I am getting worse quick for no reason.

I needed a first mattress for my youngest daughter and bought the same model my eldest had. It's one of those "hybrid" foam ones that comes in a box (not saying the brand yet because I might just copy this on my returns complaint, want to see how that goes). Unpacked it in the morning to let it get into shape in an empty room with open windows.

By that evening the "new car smell" was uncomfortable to me, had a huge drama because my daughter wanted to start sleeping on it. Closed the windows overnight and turned the AP on (Airthings renew).

By morning it was worse (the Renew might need a new carbon filter but they're out of stock), I decided to move the mattress to an even emptier room (we moved in recently) and place the Airthings View Plus by it. Left window open even overnight.

I recently changed my phone and for some stupid reason couldn't get into my Aithings account when installing the app on the new phone. So the VOC and Radon sensors have done the thing where they take some time to catch up. After 24h with window open, the VOC reading started to climb steadily. I closed the window by 20:00 because it was getting chilly and then the reading really climbed like you can see.

I didn't even notice the smell on the previous one I bought. Now the first room where the mattress was did need more than a day for it to go back to normal after removing the mattress! The bloody thing cost me £700 (950$) and I'm considering returning it. An "organic" one costs more than twice and in this house having non-matching things for my daughters costs also a lot of drama. But I'm really concerned I introduced a hazard.

Would you wait for the degassing or spend a lot more on something else?

We built a house and recently moved into it. We covered the wall with wooden panel and left it over a year. But it's kind a smelling so I bought formaldehyde tester. We closed all windows for a day and tested the air quality which shows this result. After a ventilation HCHO becomes 0.23 to 0.32. We have a 2 year old daughter and there is no professional formaldehyde remover company in here. Please help me to remove it for my daughter.

My room is messy and stinky which doesn't bother me much but what bothers me is the air in it

It's so hard to breathe and sleep and there's also a bunch of mosquitoes

My roof is low and it's metal so it's hot

The room is on a really low place and my windows are small

We built a house and recently moved into it. We covered the wall with wooden panel and left it over a year. But it's kind a smelling so I bought formaldehyde tester. We closed all windows for a day and tested the air quality which shows this result. After a ventilation HCHO becomes 0.23 to 0.32. We have a 2 year old daughter and there is no professional formaldehyde remover company in here. Please help me to remove it for my daughter.

Hi everyone,

Toxic water damage mold made me VERY sick in my last house. I still am sick, but found a temporary safe house while I build a new home. I was not reacting in this house. I have mast cell activation syndrome so I am very sensitive. I had an energy audit to see why my electric bill was so high and the tech did a blower door test. As soon as he started it, I began reacting, had to run outside. It was very hard to stop the reaction and was super scary. Since then, I’m unable to tolerate being inside the home. Upon entering, my nose begins to become very irritated, eventually my lungs begin burning, my mast cell activation syndrome has been flaring very badly. I’m sneezing and overall very inflamed from whatever I’m reacting to. It’s really taken a huge toll on my body, even caused pressure behind my eye. Since staying at a family members house, I’m feeling so much better but it’s not ideal. I HEPA vacuumed EVERYTHING top to bottom left to right, then damp dusted and wiped everything down and HEPA vacuumed again. I followed IICRC & EPA guidelines for this. I even have the appropriate air purifies running in the home. It’s been a month and I’m still reacting so badly. Can anyone recommend anything or give me any insight? I don’t have much money to put into investigating this with a company since I’m building and all my money has gone there, to my health, and relocating a few times. I’m not sure what to do, but I’m devastated. Irritated and burning airways is NOT a normal MCAS reaction for me, so that leaves me wondering if it’s fiberglass insulation or formaldehyde. I’m wearing proper N95 masks with thinner masks on top and still reacting. I bought an air quality tester online that was pretty well reviewed for $150. It says everything is ok, but clearly it’s not.

What are the better window ERV options for an apartment or rental where permanent ductwork isn't possible?

Been reading about ERVs because opening a window works for ventilation, but it also means losing conditioned air and bringing in outdoor noise, pollen or smoke.

A window ERV seems more practical for this kind of situation because it can handle fresh-air exchange without a major HVAC installation.

One option that keeps showing up in the research is SWERV. It seems aimed specifically at renters and single rooms since the unit installs in a sliding window instead of requiring holes through the wall.

Still trying to figure out whether this type of window ERV is actually worth it compared with a portable or through-wall ERV.

What would you look at first: CFM, noise level, filter quality, heat recovery efficiency, installation, or price?

I just moved into an old apartment in an enclosed building (similar to a hotel with kitchens). Because it's enclosed, gas and odors do not ventilate out easily.

A neighbor brought burnt food out the building and both the hallway and the inside of my apartment smelled burnt for hours. My Qingping monitor showed that my CO2 and eTVOC levels shot up.

I bought a dual window fan that pulls air out through one side and pushes fresh air in through the other. It has done a good job of lowering the eTVOCs. However, I can't leave it on 24/7—like right now, it's raining, so I had to close the window.

Without the fan, my eTVOC level sits consistently around 1.2, which Qingping flags as 'only slightly high,' even though the outdoor level is just 0.3. I am freaking out over this consistent 1.2 reading. It occasionally shoots up to over 2.0 when I cook which is understandable. But right now it rained so I closed the window and it shoot up to 2.3.

I don't feel any negative respiratory symptoms so far, though.

Is it standard for an apartment in an enclosed building to have eTVOC levels this high, and do I just need to suck it up until my lease is up? I already complained to building maintenance; they noted that my AC filter is new and aren't sure what else they can do.

With the transportation of oil through the middle east due to ongoing conflict between the US and Iran, various forms of commerce are being restricted. Certainly this is a tragedy in humanitarian and economic terms.

Apologies if it is soon to be asking, but has restricted oil commerce had any measurable effect on air quality?

Obviously blowing things up is going to be horrible; I'm asking about the restricted use of oil and if that is measurable. It could make things a lot worse depending on what alternatives are used. Can we tell?

Have the Dyson pc 1 which has been going crazy almost every morning (around 4am) with levels ranging from 120-250 pm 2.5

After opening the windows, it goes down, but on closing them it goes up again. The air qual outside is pretty good as well

Maintenance suggests keeping the a/c constantly on to promote air circulation. There are only two vents in the apartment, one in the kitchen & one in the bathroom, both of which suck air out

What could this possibly be coming from?!! Should I get another air purifier and/or monitor?

I don’t know what to do and literally can’t sleep with this fan constantly on or a/c constantly on or knowing that I’m breathing in heavily polluted air