#wildfiresmoke — Public Fediverse posts

Will Wildfire Smoke Harm Your Outdoor Plants? Here’s What Experts Say https://www.allforgardening.com/1910280/will-wildfire-smoke-harm-your-outdoor-plants-heres-what-experts-say/ #AnthonyGarza #CornellUniversity’sCooperativeExtensionProgram #garden #gardening #GroundsSupervisor #HillaryJufer #HorticultureProgramManager #OutdoorPlants #WildfireSmoke

Will Wildfire Smoke Harm Your Outdoor Plants? Here’s What Experts Say https://www.allforgardening.com/1910280/will-wildfire-smoke-harm-your-outdoor-plants-heres-what-experts-say/ #AnthonyGarza #CornellUniversity’sCooperativeExtensionProgram #garden #gardening #GroundsSupervisor #HillaryJufer #HorticultureProgramManager #OutdoorPlants #WildfireSmoke

An Easy-to-Build #CorsiRosenthalBox Using Modular #PCFan Systems

Jim Rosenthal
October 21, 2023

"The first Corsi-Rosenthal Box was built in August of 2020. It was presented as an #OpenSource' concept so that as many people as possible could have low-cost cleaner, safer indoor air. It is based on sound engineering principles, but it is really very simple. Use 4 (or 5) MERV 13 filters in a 'box' configuration with a box fan. The best thing is – it works! Consequently, many thousands have been made all over the world.

It has also been very enjoyable to see the continuous stream of ingenuity, creativity, and knowledge that has been expended to create a 'better' Corsi-Rosenthal Box. Much of this was out of necessity since many countries in the world do not have the same filters and fans as we have in North America. Many really smart and creative people have developed designs of the CR Box concept that work with the fans and filters available in their countries.

We have also had many people in North America who have contributed to the development of a “better mousetrap” of a DIY air cleaner. For effectiveness and low cost, it is very hard to beat the original box fan and “box” of filters design. But there have been many interesting modifications that have been shown to provide some real benefits. The most interesting of these is the use of PC fans to replace the box fan. The PC fans have the advantages of low noise and low energy usage but are not as economical or as easy to construct.

Here is another alternative – modular PC fan systems. A company by the name of AC Infinity (www.acinfinity.com) makes them. Their primary uses are for audio-visual cabinets and indoor horticulture. However, they provide low noise, high air flow and low power usage. In other words, they should work for Corsi-Rosenthal boxes. My initial tests confirm this conclusion. "

Note: I am not finding the fans on the AC Infinity website. I have found computer fans that can do the job on eBay and Amazon.

Learn more:
https://www.texairfilters.com/an-easy-to-build-corsi-rosenthal-box-using-modular-pc-fan-systems/

#SolarPunkSunday #CleanAir #WildfireSmoke #WildfireHaze #AQI #AirQuality #WildfireSeason #Wildfires #DIY #CRBoxes

Scientists Tested a DIY Air Cleaner – And It Beat Expensive Filters

By American Chemical Society, March 24, 2025

Excerpt: "As Corsi highlights during his presentation, he and his colleagues recently tested the durability and performance of #CRBoxes by installing units in four locations across the UC Davis campus. They ran them for 2,500 hours — the equivalent of two K-12 school years.

"The CR Box filters performed as well or better than comparable #HEPAFilters. The #DIY system was also more effective at clearing particles 1-3 micrometers in diameter than particles 0.35-1 micrometers. For a sense of scale, typical smoke particles are smaller than 1 micrometer, whereas dust and pollen are 0.5-3 micrometers.

"Although HEPA filters are more efficient at removing particles in a single pass than the HVAC filters used in the DIY system, Corsi explains, much more air passes through the CR Boxes, leading to more particles being removed from the air. Although the CR Boxes’ effectiveness diminished over time, they still performed better than new and more expensive HEPA air filters for the larger particle size and performed competitively with HEPA for smaller particles over the extended study period."

Read more:
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-tested-a-diy-air-cleaner-and-it-beat-expensive-filters/

#DIYAirCleaner #CorsiRosenthalBox #CorsiRosenthalBox #AirCleaners #AirFilters #DIY #WildfireSmoke

The smoke from #Canada’s #wildfires may be even more #toxic than usual

A legacy of #mining means that #ToxicMetals could be carried along plumes of smoke.

by Matt Simon, June 5, 2025

"More than 200 wildfires are blazing across central and western Canada, half of which are out of control because they’re so hard for crews to access, forcing 27,000 people to evacuate. Even those nowhere near the wildfires are suffering as smoke swirls around Canada and wafts south, creating hazardous air quality all over the midwestern and eastern parts of the United States. The smoke is even reaching Europe.

"As the climate changes, the far north is drying and warming, which means wildfires are getting bigger and more intense. The area burned in Canada is now the second largest on record for this time of year, trailing behind the brutal wildfire season of 2023. That year, the amount of #carbon blazed into the atmosphere was about three times the country’s #FossilFuel emissions. And the more carbon that’s emitted from wildfires — in Canada and elsewhere — the faster the #PlanetaryWarming, and the worse the fires.

" 'There’s obviously the #ClimateFeedback concern,' said Mike Waddington, an environmental scientist at McMaster University in Ontario who studies Canada’s forests. 'But increasingly we’re also concerned about the smoke.'

"That’s because there’s much more to wildfire smoke than charred sticks and leaves, especially where these blazes are burning in Canada. The country’s #forests have long been #mined, operations that loaded #soils and #waterways with #ToxicMetals like #lead and #mercury, especially before clean-air standards kicked in 50 years ago. Now everyone downwind of these wildfires may have to contend with that legacy and those pollutants, in addition to all the other nasties inherent in #WildfireSmoke, which are known to exacerbate respiratory and cardiac problems.

" 'You have there the burning of these organic soils resulting in a lot of carbon and a lot of #ParticulateMatter,' said Waddington. 'Now you have this triple whammy, where you have the metals #remobilized in addition to that.'

"What exactly is lurking in the smoke from Canadian wildfires will require further testing by scientists. But an area of particular concern is around the mining city of #FlinFlon, in #ManitobaCanada, which is known to have elevated levels of toxic metals in the landscape, said Colin McCarter, an environmental scientist who studies pollutants at Ontario’s #NipissingUniversity. Flin Flon’s 5,000 residents have been evacuated as a wildfire approaches, though so far no structures have been destroyed.

"But a fire doesn’t need to directly burn mining operations to mobilize toxicants. For example, in #Yellowknife, in Canada’s #NorthwestTerritories, #GoldMining operations between 1934 and 2004 spread #arsenic as far as 18 miles away, adding to a landscape with an already high concentration of naturally occurring arsenic. In a paper published last year, Waddington and McCarter estimated that between 1972 and 2023, wildfires around Yellowknife fired up to 840,000 pounds of arsenic into the atmosphere. Arsenic is a known carcinogen associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and developmental problems, according to the World Health Organization. (After the 2023 #LahainaFire in Maui, officials reported elevated levels of arsenic, lead, and other toxic substances in ash samples. California officials also found lots of lead in smoke from 2018’s #CampFire.)"

Source:
https://grist.org/climate/canada-wildfire-smoke-toxic-arsenic/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

#WaterIsLife #SoilIsLife #AirIsLife #Mining #ToxicLegacy #FirstNations #Canada #Pollution #Worldwide #AQI #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCatastrophe #AirQualityIndex