It's true we can't completely avoid it, and some less so than others. Even the country can have highly polluted air (dust, pollens, pesticides ...), while I've been in bigger cities (not of the Mexico City type) when the AQI was good. And, there have been pollutants throughout human history, it's just that there are so many more now.hairyfairy wrote:How can you avoid air pollution when you live in a city and moving to the country isn`t an option?
But for how to avoid ...
I've mostly focused on indoor AQ at home since I can control that and spend so much time in my home. If most of your time at home is sleeping in the bedroom, that would be my first area of focus, so that a third or so of your life you are breathing clean air. People in large Asian cities have started having much more of a focus on indoor AQ monitoring and filtration than in the US. They've let their air get to such abominably toxic levels that they can't possibly ignore it, but we have an opportunity to do something sooner, while most of the country is still in denial, and hopefully keep AQ regulations in place if not enhanced.
Often the outdoor air where I live outside a smallish city is good, but today is moderate. I keep a Wynd purifier in my car cup holder and will use it with the car set to recirculate its interior air when I go out to meet some friends for breakfast.
I hate to think about this, but at least on days when there's a public health warning, it's possible some people with ApoE4 might want to wear a pollution mask. You sometimes see people wearing them in public due to one condition or another. Are we as E4s so vulnerable we should be considered one such subset that should don a filtration mask earlier than other groups? I don't know for sure, but I'm inclined to think so.
I've been considering some kind of mask for when I may need to go into stores with bad AQ. The last two days I was in a department store that pumped artificial fragrance in my face as I entered the door. I walked through a huge bath of it until I was in the center of the store. Who knows what other pollutants were in the air, plus particles from trying on some clothes etc., but yesterday morning and this morning I woke up stuffy, when normally these days I don't. So there's inflammation in my head that I've worked hard to eliminate and that I think came from simply going into a store for a short while. I'm not sure what type of mask would help in that environment. I don't want to look like I'm going in to remove asbestos, but these exposures are all cumulative over a lifetime.
I've also been contemplating flipping my days. I usually run errands late afternoon/evening, but parking lots are especially full then, and full, I imagine, of poor AQ as I must be walking through all kinds of car exhaust. The outdoor air is often also worse then than in the morning, since the warmer daytime temperatures increase pollution levels if there are any. So my plan is to shift to morning errands. This cuts into the time I have alone at home, so it's easier said than done for me.
Thank you for asking that question. I think it's just another area to develop new habits if needed and do the best we can.
