is it better to sleep with all your windows closed and get no fresh air in through the night, or open them and let the wonderful invigorating taipei air enter your lungs all night?
At night the pollution levels are lower and so I would say open thewindowns unless you have the AC on. Trying to coll Taipei with your AC is an expensive and non productive thing to do
Anyway unless you have sealed your room airtight the air will get in some way
I’ve just plugged in my ionizer. My mum sent it from the UK a while back but I’ve only just got round to fitting a 250v air conditioner plug on it so I can use it here.
Ionizers make the ions in the air negative or something, like the air round a waterfall. Anyway you can tell they work because the floor and surfaces around them become coated with sticky dirt, very fine particles. They’re attracted to surfaces because of the negative ions apparently. Better on the floor than in my lungs I suppose.
I read a report of a scientific study in a UK hospital recently (sorry, can’t remember reference) which said that measured airborne bacteria were much much fewer when using ionizers in the wards. I forget the figure but it was definitely greater than 50% - I seem to remember 90% fewer although that sounds a bit extreme.
So although it probably wouldn’t do anything for the probably not airborne SARS, it would help clean up the air from a load of other airborne nasties.
I saw an ionizer recently in a health food shop. It wasn’t cheap though - about $4000.
Of course it always helps to remember that keeping generally happy, relaxed and in good shape is much more important for health than the negative effects of pollution or the positive effects of ionizers, vitamin/herbal supplements/remedies etc. This is backed up by countless studies - if anybody really wants who can’t use Google then I’ll find and reference some.
It depends on where you live in the city. If your building is tucked away in a quiet alley with little traffic, leave the windows open. If it’s located on a busy 8-lane street with buses running up and down it all day, I’d close the windows and get an air purifier or Joesax’s ionizer.
I have an ionizer that I was using in the bedroom at night but then I have to wonder about how all the noise of machines affects us too. I worry too much.
My ionizer is pretty basic - it doesn’t have a fan or anything.
I find I sleep better with a little constant background noise. It’s the irregular noises that are the problem.
I NEED that constant background noise to avoid having my sleep disturbed by occasional eruptions of sound from outside. When I lived up in the hills and could leave my windows open at night to let the sweet fresh air flood in, I always had to keep a fan on (winter and summer alike) to provide that noise. When I bought a new fan, I specifically asked for the one that made the most noise. Now that I have moved down closer to the city, where there are many more and louder noises to disturb me at night, and where the scents that waft in are not always sweet, a fan is no longer enough – I just cannot leave my windows open at all, but have to keep the aircon on (regardless of the season or the temperature), both to pump in relatively fresh air and to provide that essential noise-gobbling steady hum.
When I visit Taiwan I spend a portion of time in the south (Pindong) so I always open window there, but in Taipei, I close it, if I leave it open, all I hear and get, are pollutions and traffic accidents (didn’t Mike mention roads are deadly here?). IN fact, every year after my Taiwan trip, I get sore throat (consequently flu) after returning to Minnesota, which almost scared my colleagues to death this year (huh huh it looks like SARS), as I can be a super spreader, hundreds can be infected since I work at health care sector in Rochester.