Hi! My name is Donna. I chase clean air. Let's go! Out of Los Angeles and into the world, chasing clean air, beauty and a sustainable life!
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The City of Porterville is located in California's San Joaquin Valley, which has some of the worst air pollution in the United States. So the benefits of deploying the EV350 all-electric buses are huge and include cleaner air and quieter operation.
If Porterville can do it, your town can provide carbon and pollution-free buses, too.
Two of ten EV350 all-electric transit buses were delivered to the City of Porterville to replace existing CNG (compressed natural gas) powered transit buses. The EV350 was designed and built by California based GreenPower, a manufacturer of all-electric buses. The next three EV350 all-electric transit buses are expected to be delivered in April, with the remaining five by the summer.
Commenting on the buses delivery, Peter Christensen of the California Air Resources Board, which provided the California Climate Investments grant funding to the City for purchasing the new buses, said:
“We are pleased to see GreenPower meeting these important milestones. The citizens of Porterville will benefit in the near-term from immediate air quality benefits, and in the longer term from the jobs and on-site job training at GreenPower’s Porterville manufacturing facility currently under construction.”
With fire comes smoke with smoke comes masks (selling out in California hardware stores), with masks come the desire for breathing clean air and using indoor air purifiers. My favorite air purifier company, Swiss-based IQAir, just introduced Atem, a personal Air Purifier for home office, or any personal zone, use.
Atem means breath. Every breath we take adds to or diminishes our quality of life.
Atem Personal Air Purifier is sleek.
At 4.1 pounds... it's portable.
With dimensions measured in inches - 13" x 13"x 5.8"... it's easy to find a space in your bedroom, office or living room.
The Atem compact air purifier uses a powerful HyperHEPA to create a clean breathing space. German-made, the modern-looking white sphere attaches to a thin metal stand. Similar to an iPhone touch, you simply touch the center of the sphere with two fingers. With each touch, you hear a sound and a color hue corresponds to the air speed you desire. A small blue light equals low speed. Medium blue light equals medium speed and full blue light equals high speed.
To enhance your experience, there's the IQAir Atem App. This App allows you to adjust the fan speed, light and sound settings, get filter life notifications, and turn the air purifier on and off.
I currently use the Atem Personal Air Purifier in the living room near the couch where I read. I use the IQAir HealthPro Plus in my bedroom. According to many reputable studies, IQAir provides some of the best indoor air protection you can find.
In 2003, IQAir was chosen by the Hong Kong Hospitals as the mobile air cleaner to be used in the fight against SARS. The HKHA's selection of IQAir marked the first time specialized air cleaners to be used as a control measure against SARS. Moreover, IQAir has been approved by the FDA's (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) Department of Health and Human Services as a Class II medical device.
Recently, at approximately 6:15 a.m. I received a text from the city to evacuate. As you know, fire has been spreading throughout California. I was lucky and returned home after three days. Nonetheless, the air quality suffered. While we often can't dissipate air pollution, we can get relief with quality air purifiers. And that's why I use them.
To read more information about the IQAir Atem Personal Air Purifier, click here. To watch a video, click here.
Learn about air pollution and leaf blowers on KCET. Socal Connected investigates motorized outdoor equipment including leaf blowers and lawnmowers, which may surpass cars as California's top pollutant. In a joint investigation with FairWarning, SoCal Connected looks at the politics and pollution behind leaf blowers.
Leaf blowers cause noise and pollution, and contribute to climate change. Enforced stricter regulations and bans are needed. You can watch the TV special: "Politics and Pollution" on Nov. 14, 2017 at 8 pm on KCET.
More livable cities. We all want them. San Francisco, New York, and Boston made the 2017 Smart Cities Index, a culmination of the top 100 cities worldwide based on research at the forefront of smart evolution. The study looked at smart digitalization, urban growth, mobility, sustainability, and governance. You can read results here.
19 factors were considered from car sharing services to clean energy technologies. Insight into smart infrastructure around the world is an interesting read. Tidbits of information include Romania has faster internet than most of North America, and just after Luxembourg, South Korea has the highest smartphone usage in the world. So if you want quiet, well... another study.
Hey, Californians! There's a new commuter train in town! And it's SMART. The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit - SMART train - starts service this Friday, August 25, 2017. Free rides are offered opening day on their route between Marin's downtown San Rafael and Sonoma's Santa Rosa Airport. Stops in-between include Marin's Civic Center, Novato at Hamilton and San Marin Drive, Petaluma, Cotati, and Rohnert Park. For more information and schedule for opening day and beyond, click here.
A route I'm considering on opening day is the 2:29 p.m. departure from downtown San Rafael or the 2:35 p.m. departure from San Rafael Civic Center, arriving to Petaluma at 3 p.m. The return from Petaluma leaves for San Rafael at 3:52 p.m. or 7:59 p.m.
Swiss-made IQAir Healthpro Plus is my trusted air purifier. Situated in my bedroom, I feel safer breathing at night because living in the city of angels and traffic is, let's face it, dirty. I was recently in need of new air filters, which prompted me to reflect on what costs are worthwhile and which are not. On par with spend more for organic vegetables and wine, does an air purifier really make a difference? I believe over the long-haul, minimizing indoor air pollution does make a difference. For some allergy and asthma sufferers, an air purifier can make an immediate difference. I believe whatever I can control to enhance my environment is wise.
IQAir Healthpro Plus emits no ozone, no ions, no UV or chemicals. Mold, pollen, and dust are said to be filtered out with an efficient, well-sealed system, making an indoor air room 99.5% clean. The filtration system is effective against ultra-small particles known to cause cardiovascular and lung disease. It offers a relatively quiet hum sound on level 2 fan speed, which is where I keep it.
New studies suggest there is a correlation between, not only increased cardiovascular disease risk with long-term exposure to air pollution, but a potential greater risk for dementia due to magnetite particles in air pollution, which enters the brain via the nose. To read more about that, click here.
I have reviewed a number of air purifiers, and I stick with the IQAir Healthpro Plus as my personal favorite and the one I consistently use. This air purifier was used by Hong Kong hospitals during the SARS epidemic. I spoke to someone who said his daughter had night asthma but with the IQAir Healthpro Plus next to her bed at night, her asthma was no longer triggered.
According to the IQAir literature,
"The IQAir HealthPro Series features HyperHEPA filtration technology for superior airborne particle removal. IQAir's HyperHEPA filtration is tested and certified by an independent third-party lab to effectively filter harmful ultrafine pollution particles down to 0.003 microns in size.
This is 100 times smaller than what is achieved with ordinary air filtration technology and 10 times smaller than a virus.
In addition, to ensure that every IQAir HealthPro air purifier is actually delivering superior air quality, each and every system is individually tested at the factory with an electronic particle counter and is certified to filter a minimum of 99.97% of all particles 0.3 microns or larger."
IQAir provided a particle scanner to test my new air purifier, which I keep in the bedroom. On particular smoggy days, my bedroom air tested significantly better than the rest of the apartment and outside air. It gave off no odors like some other manufacturers' air purifiers, and I trust that the IQAir Healthpro helps me breathe easier. It's a keeper!
Until next time, breathe easy and make life an adventure!
Until next time, breathe easy and make life an adventure. Let's go! Out of Los Angeles and into the world, chasing clean air, beauty, and a sustainable life!
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