WEBVTT - Wildfire Smoke: A Self Defense Guide 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:08.840 Oh boy, it could happen. Here a podcast about what 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:12.639 we like to call the crumbles, which is the process 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:17.360 of the aspects of modern life that were nice and 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:21.720 convenient and functional breaking down as the climate and our 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:29.639 political systems continue to fray around the edges and gradually collapse. Today, 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.080 a lot of you are living through a pretty undeniable 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:34.800 piece of that. If you're anywhere kind of in the 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.720 Eastern Seaboard, if you're in New York City, if you're 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:40.519 in Philly, if you're in DC, if you're in one 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.080 of the other places at Baltimore, you're dealing with air 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.479 quality the likes of which you've probably never seen unless 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:52.360 you fled there from the West coast. Basically everyone who 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.160 lives in the northeast of the United States right now, 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:58.920 as well as a huge number of Canadians, are absolutely 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:01.880 cloaked in wildfire smoke, drowning in the ghosts of a 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.480 thousand forests. And that's a bummer. It's a bummer, and 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:09.000 it's a real problem. And so I wanted to kind 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:15.200 of sit down with Margaret Killjoy, our resident Prepper extraordinaiy Hi, Margaret, Hello, 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.600 how are you yeah? Doing great? Because we're not drowning 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:23.000 in wildfire smoke. But three years ago in Portland in 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.080 twenty twenty, the air quality was even worse than it 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.160 is in New York City right now. So I've got 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:33.080 some experience dealing with this, and Margaret, you spend a 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:37.839 lot of time thinking about practical prepping, and that's something 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:40.520 that I think a lot of folks probably are wishing 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:43.399 that they had spent more time doing right now. This 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.480 is the kind of thing that happens. You know, it's 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.160 not on you know, anybody is like a moral thing. 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:51.640 But it happens anytime there's a disaster that affects everybody 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:55.760 at once, all the stuff that is useful for countering 0:01:55.760 --> 0:01:59.600 that disaster sells out or is looted very very quickly, 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:03.760 and then people suddenly don't have the kind of options 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:08.720 for tools that they need. You know, this is not great. 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.200 So I wanted to kind of sit down first off 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:13.400 and kind of talk about one of the better airsats 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.000 tools that you can put together if you are trying 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.160 to deal with the problem of making your air cleaner. 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:22.359 And basically we have to kind of split this problem 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:24.720 into two. Right there is the problem of what do 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:27.000 I do if I'm going outside, and we'll talk about 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:29.880 that later. But there's stuff that you purchase, you know, 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:32.360 that is the only things that's going or stuff that 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:34.680 you already had on hand is all that's going to 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.240 help in that instance. But there are some things you 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:41.320 can do to keep your inside space clean of particulate 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.560 and relatively safe that don't require at least as many 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.560 things to purchase, and that are you know, can be 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:51.359 made with stuff that you probably are likelier to have 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:56.880 on hand. So I want to talk first about what 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:01.000 you can do to like filter your indoor air. You know, 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:07.160 in Portland, when we had our horrible fucking wildfire apocalypse, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.280 yellow smog blanketing the world and making everything look like 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.880 fucking blade runner, everyone at least had gas masks and 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.799 full face respirators, which you know, folks in the Northeast 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:20.440 right now haven't gone through that experience and so don't 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:21.880 have that kind of stuff on hand. But what we 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.680 didn't have in Portland was the stuff that can keep 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.480 your indoors cleaner. For one thing, people don't have like 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.240 HEPA filters or central air you know in Oregon as 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:34.480 often as they have it in some other parts of 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:38.360 this country. And so a lot of people wound up 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:43.200 creating building for themselves what are called Corsey Rosenthal boxes 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.440 now a Coarsey Rosenthal box is a kind of like 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:53.320 air filtration system for rooms that's made up of a 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:56.480 box fan and five air filters, like the kind of 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:58.880 filters that you're going to use for your HVAC system 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.600 in your house. Right, pretty much most houses are going 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.960 to have some kind of like air filter already, and 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.160 they're also widely available, Like if you go to any 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:10.080 home depot or lows, they're going to have a shitload 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.280 of air filters. You can use multiple different types. The 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:16.280 bigger the air filter, the more air it'll handle. Coursey 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:20.520 Rosenthal boxes were invented kind of right at the start 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:23.719 of the pandemic. One of the guys who made it, 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:27.160 Richard Corsi, was an environmental engineer who kind of realized 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.320 as soon as the pandos started that a lot of 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:32.400 poor people were going to be absolutely fucked when it 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.880 came to filtering air in their homes because good you 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:40.960 can get like a nice Hepa filter, like standalone Hepa filter, 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.240 but they're usually several hundred dollars. So he wanted to 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.560 try and provide people with something that could make that 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.840 was a lot cheaper. He had worked previously with the 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.480 CEO of a filter company that I think is based 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:54.800 in Texas, so he called that guy up and they 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:59.120 collaborated on a design that basically used you build like 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:01.840 a box out of air filters and you stick a 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:04.400 back box fan on top of it. If you google 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:08.720 Coursey Co R SI, Dash Rosenthal R O, S E 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.960 N T H A L box, you'll find the Wikipedia 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:15.560 page which has a guide to making these. It's very simple. 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.520 If you're not crafty at all or have no real tools, 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.880 you can still make it work. I've won a couple 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:25.200 of years ago, you know, when shit happened in Portland, 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.800 as did several people I knew. And they're not hard 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:31.320 to do, and the most common size of box that 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:33.880 you can build will allow it'll basically change the air 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:38.200 out in a room five full times per hour and 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.520 a five hundred square foot room, which is reasonably good. 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.560 It'll make a meaningful difference in your indoor air quality 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.520 if you're like blanketed in Hell's mog right now. 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:49.599 Yeah, that's about That's about the same as like one 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:51.359 hundred and fifty dollars if you were to like go 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.440 out and buy, yeah, a five hundred square foot filter, 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:56.239 it would be about one hundred and fifty bucks. 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.880 And that is about what this will cost you right now, 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.320 I think, because shit's got more expensive. At least that's 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.680 what a recent Outside magazine article gave the cost of 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:07.880 constructing this interesting that said you might be able to 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.160 get it for cheaper. There's a good chance, that's if 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.120 you're buying everything. Most people in most places have a 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.679 box fan, you know, and most people have a couple 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:18.159 of filters, which which should cut down on the cost. 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:21.279 You know, It'll depend on kind of where you are 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:24.720 and what things are are running. But Hepa filters are 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:28.160 also standalone ones likelier to sell out fast as opposed 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.760 to kind of the raw components to making a Coarsey 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:34.360 Rosenthal filter, So you may find it easier to get 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.359 access to I like the Corsey Rosenthal filter for a 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:42.680 couple of other reasons. Obviously, it's accessible and it's comparatively affordable, 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:45.159 but it also is something that you can make yourself 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.599 that will have a meaningful impact on how you weather 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:53.039 this event. That's important psychologically in a disaster, feeling as 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:55.560 if you have some sort of agency by actually doing 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.000 the useful thing, and it can also be important from 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:00.640 a community point of view. You can thear hdically raise 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.839 money and put together people to make Corsey Rosenthal boxes 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.080 and hand them out to people who maybe can't afford 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.360 them or you know, have mobility issues or less able 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:11.560 to get the equipment. That's the kind of thing that 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:16.000 builds community connection and also offers an immediate alleviation of 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:21.120 suffering and health consequences for people, which is the kind 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.640 of thing that I like to see people doing in 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:28.120 a disaster like this. I also kind of like this 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.920 filter because it represents a rare example of people you 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:36.160 might call elites taking immediate action to ensure cash poor 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.320 individuals had a life saving tool available to themselves. It's 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:41.200 one of those kind of rare examples from the start 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.040 of the pandemic of like that radical solidarity we saw 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.960 bits and pieces of. And I think Jim Rosenthal and 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.320 Richard Corsi are pretty cool in my book for figuring 0:07:51.360 --> 0:07:54.520 out this thing. So you know, there's a lot that's 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:56.040 nice about these filters. 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:58.680 So I just looked at the cost of making one, 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:00.440 I just like kind of added it together. It looks 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.480 like you could probably make one for about sixty five bucks. 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:04.240 Oh great, great, great grade. It is probably the outside 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:05.840 guy was probably buying all the Gucci shit. 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.200 Right, if you just buy cheap, you need at least 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.040 a MERV thirteen filter. That's the level of filter where 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.960 it starts cutting out smoke. And if you get the 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.200 twenty inch filters, which I think is what usually people 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:19.800 are getting a twenty inch box fan, and so it's 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.840 and then you only need the four filters, I believe, 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:25.400 because the bottom isn't sucking air in the bottom ends 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.240 up a flat when I was looking at it earlier today. 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:29.520 But you've built one and I haven't. 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.200 So yeah, honestly, it was three years ago. Yeah, everybody, 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:35.720 I misspoke saying five. I think you can do it 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:38.400 just fine with four. I'm not sure if either we 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.000 did it weird when we did it last or if 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.800 I was just remembering wrong, But that means, yeah, a 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.800 lot more available. Like I had three filters on hand 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:50.960 in my house this morning, just because that's how many, 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:53.800 you know, I usually keep as a backup. So a 0:08:53.800 --> 0:08:57.520 lot of you are probably in a similar situation. And yeah, 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:01.319 that's a more accessible thing compared to the equipment. We're 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:04.959 about to start talking about stuff like respirators and stuff 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:07.760 like standalone HEPA filters, which are likely to sell out 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.080 pretty quickly as people go to all of the stores 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:11.080 to buy up all the things. 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:13.480 Although I will say it's almost depressing right now. I 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:16.040 was checking availability for some of my East Coast friends. 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.480 I'm actually an East Coast friend normally, but I went 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.520 to the land of Smoke, the usual smoke Pacific Northwest 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.120 and missed it. But most things are still available right now, 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:28.480 at least as of recording. I don't know whether it's 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:34.120 people just haven't put it together that it's necessary, or 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.719 people felt like they couldn't afford it. A lot of 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:38.280 stuff is still in stock as of this. 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:40.760 That's really good to hear, because that's what we're about 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.280 to get into. So I did want to kind of 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.160 lead into this, moving from this kind of what I 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:48.960 think is inspiring about the course E. Rosenthal filter, which 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:54.120 is that it's something that is accessible, something that people 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.560 can work on and provide for each other together, and 0:09:56.640 --> 0:10:00.160 sort of representative of the kind of radical solidarity see 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:04.680 in disasters. I think that's kind of particularly meaningful to 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:10.720 me because of why this air quality event is so 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:13.920 frightening to folks. You know, people who are in New 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.199 York or Philly, or Richmond or DC or a lot 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.720 of other places in the Northeast have not dealt with 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.480 this kind of air quality before. This is because most 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.400 people who are young in those areas, because most young 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:31.520 Americans have had the privilege of experiencing air pollution primarily 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:35.120 as either an annoyance or as an abstract concept. A 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.440 big part of why is that the Clean Air Act, 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:41.320 instituted in nineteen sixty three, did a huge amount to 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:44.120 stop the kind of poisoning of the sky that led 0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:47.000 to fairly regular smog events in the fifties and early 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.560 to mid nineteen sixties, even nineteen seventies in a lot 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:51.800 of parts of this country. You know, it took a while. 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.559 There was more involved than just the Clean Air Act, 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:57.480 but shit like this used to be a lot more common, 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:01.400 and Americans suffered from a variety of illnesses, including adult 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.839 onset emphysema or young adult on set mphysima at a 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:08.120 much higher rate because of stuff like this. If you 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:10.720 are young, and by young, I mean like my age, 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.560 Margaret's age, you know, not all that young. Because air 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.880 quality in the United States has been significantly better than 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:19.960 it was for like my parents when they were kids. 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:23.400 For quite a while, you have benefited from a pretty 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:30.680 remarkably successful campaign to render Americans at least less vulnerable 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.480 to them to this kind of pollution. Now, this came 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:37.600 alongside years of others' reforms and things like emission standards, 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:41.120 which were successful enough that in like West La right now, 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.200 a lot of days of the year you can see 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:46.280 the mountains. That was not a thing for people who 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:49.360 lived in Los Angeles and say the nineteen seventies. I 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:51.760 had an annual check up right after I moved there 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:55.920 with my doctor in you know, southern California, and I 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.240 asked him, like what life had been like there during 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:00.160 the small years. And the thing that he mentioned to 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:02.160 me that stuck with me is that he had a 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:05.280 shitload of like patients in their twenties who had like 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:09.120 the early symptoms of emphysema, which is just not a 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:14.520 thing that really occurred occurs in southern California anymore. Although, 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.880 you know, because of climate change, there are similar things 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:20.880 that are starting to hit. You know, there's a number 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:25.200 of like fungal based infections that people are getting, particularly 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.200 in the valley that's really nasty and wildfire smoke could 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:31.560 bring back a lot of this stuff. And so yeah, 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.800 we're kind of looking at a lot of the gains 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:39.760 in public health caused by reducing you know, the amount 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.400 of smog in the air going away as a result 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:56.320 of you know, externalities that can't be controlled locally. Now, 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.040 the downside of the really lovely state of affairs that 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.200 was kind of ushered into the Clean Air Act is 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:04.199 that most Americans have spent their lives in kind of 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:08.040 a bubble of artificially pure air, while the negative externalities 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.080 that made are tech heavy lives possible were exported to 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:15.439 the global South, and those people experienced with increasing regularity 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.680 the kind of catastrophic pollution that in an earlier age 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.200 here caused the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland to light on 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:25.720 fire every spring or so. Globally, in twenty eighteen, some 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:28.720 eight point seven million deaths were caused by air pollution, 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:33.120 specifically pollution created via the burning of fossil fuels. David 0:13:33.120 --> 0:13:36.560 Wallace Wells, who writes about climate catastrophe better than most people, 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.200 put the cost this way in a testimony before the 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:42.520 US Senate Committee on the Budget in twenty twenty one. 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.160 Those punishments are harrowingly widespread. The Lancet puts the global 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:48.920 annual death toll of air pollution at nine million. This 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:51.960 is dying at the scale of the Holocaust every single year. 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:54.960 In India, where three hundred and forty nine thousand stillbirths 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:57.559 and miscarriages have been attributed annually to the effects of 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:00.520 air pollution, the average resident of Delhih had his or 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.480 her life expectancy shortened by more than nine years from 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.960 the repetitive inhalation of smog. Globally, the average figure is 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:07.600 two years. 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:09.360 So this is bad. 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:11.800 So this is real bad, and it's one of those 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:15.960 things that we're it's it's so shocking and traumatic to 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.200 people right now because we haven't experienced this in most 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.240 of the US outside of like, yeah, the West, you 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:25.200 know recently as the wildfires have gotten worst for quite 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:29.280 a while, but the problems that cause this we were, 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:33.840 you know, suffered by people outside of the United States 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.720 consistently for years. Like one of the things that's you know, 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:39.920 you've kind of seen on like Twitter and shit, is 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:41.520 like people in the West Coast and the East Coast 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:44.120 fighting about who's had it worse in terms of wildfire 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:47.400 smog lately and like, well, the answer if you want 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:49.760 to talk about who's been dealing with this the worst 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.160 and the longest, is like people in fucking Deli, people 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:56.080 in Shinzen, you know, the in China. Like this is 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.880 a problem that is primarily born. I mean, this is 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.640 not in the US too, by the poor, but it's 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:06.040 been borne by the poor outside of the United States 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.000 because we successfully externalized a lot of the consequences of 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:14.320 our lifestyles. And ideally, the hopeful thing is that perhaps 0:15:14.840 --> 0:15:18.360 experiencing this in New York City, which is, if you're 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.560 not aware, we're the only writers that people apparently listen 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:26.240 to live will cause some kind of enhanced solidarity for 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.880 the folks in what you might call or what often 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.760 is described as the Global South, who are have been 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.320 dealing with this for years and will continue to deal 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.320 with this in a much more severe form with much 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:40.440 fewer resources available to them. If you are currently living 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.000 in one of the great cities besieged by wildfire smoke, 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.200 your life span has already been shortened. Now I'm not 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:49.720 trying to be like panic inducing. We're talking about like 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:51.720 by the same it would be like if you had 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:54.480 smoked half a pack of cigarettes since this all started. 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:57.800 It's kind of similar to that, But there is no 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.640 safe amount of time to inhale, particular in the quantities 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.040 when you're talking about AQI over four hundred. There's no 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:05.040 safe amount of time to just kind of be raw 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.200 dogging the air out in the street. Any amount is 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.440 going to damage your lungs, it's going to stiffen your arteries, 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:12.760 it's going to increase your chances of a number of cancer's. 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:16.600 Heart attack risk increases by a meaningful amount. When you 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.200 are out dealing with stuff like this, your immune system 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:20.920 is significantly weaker, and. 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:22.520 You don't get to look cool like smoking. 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.120 You don't get to look cool like smoking. Right Like, 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.480 it's all of the downsides of being a daily smoker 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.320 with none of the significant benefits of looking rad as 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:37.200 hell of looking like fucking Martin Sheen and apocalypse. Now, 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.760 ah man, I love a good smoker, but nobody looks 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.120 good in this shit unless you're like, have one of 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.560 those sick ass you know, apocalypse dusters, and like a 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:49.160 face mask, which we're about to talk about. Then you 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:53.160 can look cool, although your clothing will probably always smell 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:57.480 of wildfire. There's a lot Also, it's kind of worth 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.640 noting that, like when we're talking about the day here, 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:04.040 it's not It may smell like a little like campfire smoke, 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:07.879 but you're also inhaling an incinerated asbestos and particle board, 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:11.159 and you know, presumably hordes of ammunition that had been 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.760 buried by Canadian preppers. So like, there's a lot of 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:16.120 reasons why you don't want to breathe this shit in. 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:18.440 So when you go outside, you are going to want 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.000 to wear a mask. In ninety fives work reasonably well 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.760 for adults if you have any on hand, or if 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:26.639 you're fortunate enough to live in a city with the 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:29.560 kind of emergency preparedness budget that allows them to provide 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.119 stuff like that New York City is providing in ninety 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.560 fives in some quantity right now. If you're out on 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.160 your own, an N ninety five maybe an easy thing 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:42.760 to acquire quickly for relatively cheap. That said, they're not 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:44.959 perfect for one thing. They don't tend to work very 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:47.120 well on kids. For this just because like the fit 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.199 is off and wrong. You may find that something like 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.800 a KF ninety four allows you to get a better 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.200 fit on a child, and those do work reasonably well, 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:58.480 certainly better than like nothing at all in this kind 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:03.119 of a situation. My personal recommendation, if they are in 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:05.399 stock and if you can afford them, is either a 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:08.439 half or a full face respirator. We'll talk about the 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.000 differences between those in a second, but these are the 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.320 kind of masks that like, if you're a contractor and 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:15.159 you're like putting together a building, you're dealing with a 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.720 shitload of insulation, you're like cutting certain kinds of metal, 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:20.639 or you know, you're doing a whole bunch of different 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:23.720 things that can kick up nasty particulate. You probably have 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.040 a number of these, right Like people I know in 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:29.080 graffiti and graffiti. Yeah, if you're doing a lot of graffiti, 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:32.800 you know, hang out near a building, you know that 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.320 kids that kids spray paint a lot, and then you know, 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:37.800 stick them up with a handgun for their their respirators. 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:42.920 That's a responsible way to deal with Yeah, that's trying 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:46.560 to teach everyone smoke through the respirator. That makes it 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:54.720 extra cool and healthy. So yeah, what we're talking about here, Like, 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:56.760 if you're looking for a thing to type into Google 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.679 or whatever, three M half mask respirator. I found a 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.080 three and a half mask respirator kit with a couple 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.639 of what are called Bayonet filters for forty six forty 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.080 one on Granger dot com right now. You can get 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.560 them for similar prices on Amazon dot com. If you 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:13.960 walk into a Lows or a home depot and they 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.000 have not there hasn't been a run on them, you 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:19.360 can probably find these. You will want to make sure 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:22.119 you get filters with them. Sometimes you get just the 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:24.880 respirator and you have to buy the filters separately. Usually 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:26.560 if you get one, it'll it'll come with them, But 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:29.480 make sure the filters are going to be these. Most 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:32.199 of them look kind of like triangles with like rounded 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:36.119 edges that are sort of this like pinkish purple color. 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:38.760 For the most part, there's some that are gray and 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:42.520 like circular. It doesn't really matter you know which kind 0:19:42.520 --> 0:19:44.919 of filters yours get. I would say just get whatever 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.400 they have the most of Well, yeah. 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.080 The in general, the filters filter out a ton of 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:52.399 different stuff, And the thing you're looking for is the 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:55.560 particulate filteration, which is actually the easiest and that's why 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:59.560 almost any filter will do this. The rawest doesn't do 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:01.560 anything else. Filter that you would be looking for is 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:05.320 a P one hundred and sometimes those are they're more likely. 0:20:05.400 --> 0:20:07.879 I believe three M marks them as the pink, So 0:20:07.920 --> 0:20:11.840 if it's pink, it's particulate with three M. There's other brands. 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:14.679 There's Honeywell, and then there's Yeah, I can't remember off 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:16.879 the top of my head, but anyway, P one hundred 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:19.960 is like you just look for particular filter. But honestly, yeah, 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:21.520 pretty much anything is going to do it. 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.399 Basically, any kind of respirator you're going to get it, 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:26.720 like a home depot with filters is going to be 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:30.159 sufficient for this. Yeah, there are kind of like the 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:33.840 one and that. There's two main categories of respirators. The 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.080 one we're interested in are called air purifying respirators. That 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:39.280 means you breathe in the air from outside and it 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.840 filters it right. The other kind of atmosphere supplying respirators, 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:46.199 which normal people do not need in this situation. That's like, 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:49.960 you know, it has like a tank of stuff walking around. 0:20:51.080 --> 0:20:51.600 Don't get that. 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:54.359 It's going to be a lot more than is necessary 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:57.080 for at least the next like six to eight months. 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:02.480 Respirators are then further divided into half face masks, which 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:05.200 things like Batman from that the worst of the Nolan 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:07.360 Batman or not Batman, think of Bane from the Worst 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:09.280 of the Nolan Batman movies. It's a little bit like 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:11.560 that right where it's kind of just over your mouth 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:15.199 and jaw. And then there's full face masks and there 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:19.960