Bushfire smoke masks

[ronrat]

try living in a city thst has 1000s of Chinese visiting every day. Most are on the pay for everything in China deals but a few escape for a beer. You can't wear a mask all the time.

[David]

I think you might be one of the people Stui’s warning us to keep away from, RR! :p

[Morrigu]

China coronavirus

The origin is suspected to be a food market that "conducted illegal transactions of wild animals"

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51176409

[luvdids]

And now confirmed in Australia

https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-sydney-scare-as-china-heads-into-shutdown/71c2e099-d49b-42b9-b4b1-02bc4a0457a6

[K]

And France!

[K]

'No safe level': Study links PM2.5 pollution to increased risk of cardiac arrest

https://www.smh.com.au/national/no-safe-level-study-links-pm2-5-pollution-to-increased-risk-of-cardiac-arrest-20200128-p53v98.html

"The study found the risk of cardiac arrest increased by 4 per cent for every 10-unit increase in PM2.5 levels...

In 2019, Sydney residents were exposed to a record 81 days of hazardous, very poor or poor air quality – more than the combined total for the previous 10 years. Air quality is deemed "poor" in regards to PM2.5 when it reaches 25 µg/m3 – or 100 on the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment's air quality index.

Study lead author Kazuaki Negishi, from the University of Sydney School of Medicine, said despite recent concerns about rising PM2.5 levels, residents are "blindly" assuming air quality is safe at levels below 25 µg/m3, when there is really "no safe level" of PM2.5 pollution.
...

"It might not be a good idea to continue to seek [a new] threshold, but try to continuously improve our air quality. If a threshold exists, it should be very, very close to zero," Professor Negishi said."

[think positive]

man i can see why this dust is so dangerous, i took the pool cover of monday and the pool was covered in it, like the walls were sheated with it, and so was both sides of the pool cover. i tried to vac to waste, but it was stuck to the sides. I had to get in the red pool and scrape the walls down, then i bought some flocculant and let the filter run. this morning i vac to waste, but i didnt quite get it all. it also leaves a film on the surface. it took me 2 hours to vacuum the pool, clean around the pool so the storm later doesnt wash the red back in, and to scrub both sides of the cover, i just cant image those towns close by that copped that dust cloud full on. its like grit in your mouth. i wore a mask, the filter is red!! and now im too buggered to swim!

[Wokko]

Might want to hang on to those masks if we have a corona outbreak.

[K]

"UNICEF said Wednesday it has shipped six metric tons of respiratory masks and protective suits to China for use by health workers.
...

Respilon, a Czech company that makes its "nanofiber" masks in China, sold 700,000 of them last year worldwide. Since last week, it received orders for 7 million more. The problem: It cannot make any because the Chinese government extended the Lunar New Year holiday in a bid to contain the virus' spread.

In Taiwan, where the holiday is over, factories are up and running. Premier Su Tseng-chang said the government had already distributed 23 million masks and that Taiwan will be able to produce 4 million more a day.

A mask factory in Shanghai has gone into overdrive despite the holiday.

"We are now working 24 hours, two shifts a day, 12 hours shift," said Liao Huolin, president of the mask company. "We violated labor law," Liao said, "but the workers understand.""

(AP)

[K]

Mask Hoarders May Raise Risk of a Coronavirus Outbreak in the U.S.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/29/health/coronavirus-masks-hoarding.html

"Even though there are only five cases of Wuhan coronavirus in the United States, the mask hoarding has begun.

Some pharmacies report being entirely sold out of masks. Some popular sellers on Amazon say deliveries will be delayed for weeks.
...

Masks are part of the medical equipment stored in the National Strategic Stockpile, which is distributed in government-controlled warehouses around the country. But experts said they did not know how many were in storage or how long the supply was projected to last in an epidemic.
...

Trials in Canadian hospitals during the 2003 SARS epidemic and during flu season showed that nurses who wore a mask were less likely to get flu.

Nurses who wore N-95 masks ... were particularly protective for those who did dangerous procedures like intubating SARS patients.

There is less data proving that masks keep patients from spreading germs. But this common sense notion has led many hospitals to adopt rules saying that any emergency room patient with flu symptoms is immediately handed a mask and asked to put it on."

[eddiesmith]

[ronrat]

hotel near me has had no guests for 3 days, closed the bar and cafe and sent most of them home, without pay. big buddha day on saturday so all bars closed.

[K]

[eddiesmith]

Volunteer Firefighter

[K]

The End of Australia as We Know It

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/15/world/australia/fires-climate-change.html