Thread by @emollick

We REALLY should be investing in better indoor air filtration; it isn't just for COVID. This paper finds a shocking 26% higher error rate for professional chess players when PM2.5 increases by just 10 μg/m3 (outdoor air in the US & Europe averages over 10 μg, Asia is much higher)

Add that to the research on how much test scores are affected by air conditioning on hot days, and it is pretty clear that good HVAC systems will often pay for themselves in schools, offices, and anywhere else thinking matters.

https://twitter.com/emollick/status/1415743134101803017?s=20

Here is another example of the effect of low levels of air pollution on our ability to do complex thinking. It sounds funny at first - the speeches of politicians get dumber on high pollution days - but it gets more alarming the more you think about it.

https://twitter.com/emollick/status/1480417781170556930?s=20

A lot of folks replying to this thread are saying that people should open their windows… but the pollution being discussed in the thread (and more 👇) largely comes from outside, in the form of small particulate matter. It isn’t just a ventilation issue!

https://twitter.com/emollick/status/1471858072381530112?s=20

Links to the papers that are not linked elsewhere in the thread (both of them make a good argument for causality).

Chess paper: iza.org/publications/d…
Politician paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…