The importance of the lungs for health

Are you getting enough exercise, eating right, getting enough vitamins and other trace elements, sleeping well, and so on.

One of the least noticed areas of our health and well-being is a fundamental human function; breathing, and more specifically, what we absorb into our bodies through our lungs about 15 times a minute, every day of our lives.

To get a bit more concrete with the volume, let's do a quick calculation:
in an hour we breathe 60 minutes times 15 breaths per minute, which is
900 breaths, and during the day, in 24 hours, we breathe 21,600 times.

On average, humans take in half a liter of air into their lungs with each breath, so during a 24-hour period, we breathe 10,800 liters of air, which is over 10 cubic meters of air.

In a year, we breathe 7,884,000 times, half a liter at a time, so our bodies take in 3,942,000 liters of air. This is 3,942 cubic meters of air. During our lifetime, men (around 78-79 years on average) and women (82 years) will inhale well over 300,000,000 million liters, or 300,000 cubic meters of air.

At this point, the undersigned needs to take a break. 

By writing the numbers down in front of my eyes, I can state that I have never thought about it from a volume perspective before, nor have I compared it to, for example, water consumption.

Is water quality or air quality more important for health?

Water is considered one of the most important things on Earth in terms of life, as well as in terms of human health. If I compare this to the fact that I drink an average of 2 liters of water every day, I will drink slightly more than 50 cubic meters of water over the course of my life—that is, 50,000 liters. Proportionally, in terms of my health, 50 cubic meters of water corresponds to 0.016% of the volume of air we breathe. However, when I think about it myself, the purity and quality of water are, in my mind, more important than air.
The short answer is certainly that the harmful effects of dirty water are almost immediate, while the effects of polluted air are longer-term and the harmful effects only appear after years.

Of course, the analogy doesn't account for shoving your head into campfire smoke or relaxing in the immediate vicinity of a car's exhaust pipe. Can the saying “you are what you eat” be applied to breathable air? Certainly not directly, but on the other hand, your health also consists of what you breathe, and the volume of air is staggeringly large. 
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The greatest leverage for health

What would be the best starting point if I wanted to change one thing that would have the biggest positive impact on the air we breathe?

To answer this question, another question was first needed;
Where do I spend most of my life breathing?

At home – It's a simple and logical answer for most. 
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If we divide a 24-hour day into three eight-hour segments, the following main activities occur on average: We sleep for 8 hours—hopefully comfortably, in our warm and safe home. 8 hours we work, and 8 hours we do something else, either at home or away from home. Especially over the past two years, the amount of time spent at home has been extremely high due to the pandemic. It’s highly likely that we spend more than 50% of our total time at home. 

I've decided to focus solely on indoor air quality because it's the single place where I'm exposed to air the most. So, roughly speaking, we breathe over 150 million liters of air in our lifetime, which is over 150,000 cubic meters of air in a place that I personally consider the most important and safest. In light of these numbers, I am convinced that ensuring the quality of my home's indoor air is the most effective single way for me to achieve the greatest health benefit.

What do we breathe then?

​That’s an excellent question—let’s visit a middle school chemistry class and review what’s in the air. Nitrogen 78.%, oxygen 20.95%, argon 0.93%, carbon dioxide 0.04% – Note: Carbon dioxide makes up only 0.04% of the air. In addition, normal, clean air contains very small amounts of other gases, such as helium (0.000524%). 

However, the air also contains water vapor/droplets and particles. Particles are generally divided into two groups, PM10 and PM2.5. .

PM 10 coarse particles 10 microns and smaller particles. 
For example, street dust, dust at home, pollen, mainly particles that do not easily travel to the deepest parts of the lungs. 
PM 2.5 particulate matter, particles 2.5 microns and smaller. 
This category is the most dangerous because the smaller the particle, the longer it floats in the air, and the easier it is for it to get deep into the lungs and alveoli.
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Half of our lives we breathe indoor air

How particulate matter affects various diseases is still a subject of research, but fundamentally, we are talking about such small particles that they can easily enter the bloodstream from the lung alveoli. 

Naturally, of course, we think of lung diseases because the lungs are the first place where fine particles end up when inhaled. However, a study conducted in the United States revealed a surprising fact: over half of the long-term illnesses caused by fine particles were cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. 

Gaseous organic compounds in indoor air are likely linked to health and odor complaints experienced by people, which manifest as, for example, headaches, fatigue, and especially sensations that reduce living comfort. Multiple compounds present simultaneously in the air may also have a synergistic effect.

It is logical to deduce where the blood that leaves the lungs circulates first and how widely it affects our bodies.

Considering that we are mandatorily exposed to over 300,000 cubic meters of air during our lives, and more than half of that is in our homes, even small particles will eventually accumulate and have a detrimental effect. 

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How can I find out the quality of my indoor air?

Indoor air quality measurement is now an easy and effortless procedure. Measuring an air sample is the only way to ensure the quality of the air you breathe, as humans get used to indoor air in as little as half an hour. Indoor air quality measurements can be completed in just a week, without the continuous presence of a professional. Freshin Oy offers residents a loan of an Airthings brand monitor, with which the resident can perform the measurement themselves, and the measurement results are then reviewed with a professional.