The Lemming's Back: Or, Flight Characteristics of Wet Dust

As it turned out, the Lemming got back in "none of the above:"

• "A Change in Schedule, or, the Lemming Takes a Break"
  (September 10, 2012)

A medical emergency and family ties kept the Lemming, cleverly disguised as some 60-something human, tied up. Metaphorically speaking:

• "Another Month, Another Unexpected Drive"
  Through One Dad's eye (September 16, 2012)

The Lemming thought of getting back on schedule with a post about an XKCD.com comic strip, but decided to go with something that happened this week instead.

The Lemming's household had gotten a call from Rainbow^® (rainbowsystem.com), with the usual offer to demonstrate their product and get a free gizmo. Generally, the Lemming isn't interested: but this outfit was selling air purifiers. That's important for quite a few folks in this house, so the Lemming said 'okay.'

We didn't buy the full-size air cleaner: the price is probably reasonable, but much more than this household can afford right now. What we got was a scaled-down Rainbow^® unit, with a noisier motor and fewer of the bells and whistles. It'll be interesting to see how well it works over the next few weeks.

The freebie is about the size of two or three stacked pumpernickel loaves. It's mechanically simple: a motor drives a fan and centrifugal water pump. The pump pulls water from a smallish reservoir, flings droplets through air drawn in by the fan, with the vast bulk of the water falling back into the reservoir.

Most of the water evaporates: but mostly it just picks up dust that's in the air. The slogan on their website is "Wet Dust Can’t Fly^®." It's the same sort of thing that happens when it rains: only this rain shower is horizontal, and contained inside the gadget.

The Lemming would have enjoyed the demo, even if the gadget hadn't been worth thinking about. For one thing, the Lemming had never seen a vacuum cleaner play a harmonica before. That was fun. Watching stuff from the couch turn water into a very thin mud foam: not so much.

Folks in this household had a good time, watching the demo and chatting with the salesman and trainee who came. Your experience may vary.

That's all for now. The Lemming expects to be back next Friday, opining about whatever blows in from the Internet.

Not-completely-unrelated posts:

• "Roomba Review, and Dancing Robots"
  (August 17, 2012)
• "Alarm Clocks, the Early Days: 'At the Sound of the Clunk...' "
  (July 20, 2012)
• "Dyson "Groom Tool" - A Little More Than a Brush and Vacuum"
  (November 6, 2010)
• "3D TV Health Concern: Sort of"
  (April 15, 2010)
• "Titanium Dioxide in Concrete: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"
  (August 8, 2010)

Titanium Dioxide in Concrete: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

"Could pollution-eating concrete clean up our urban jungles?"
CNN (August 6, 2010)

"Concrete isn't usually considered an environmentalists' friend, but a remarkable new technology could soon be turning the gray stuff green.

"Scientists at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have developed a paving material that actually eats pollution, claiming it could soon become a crucial tool for improving air quality in urban areas.

"The problem in many cities is that vehicle exhausts emit nitrogen oxides, which cause acid rain and smog that damages not only human health and quality of life but also the fabric of buildings.

"But the new concrete is coated with titanium dioxide, which is a photocatalytic material, meaning it removes the nitrogen oxides and uses sunlight to convert them into harmless nitrate that is washed away by rain...."

I remember when asbestos was the wonder-mineral that saved lives by containing fires. The stuff was everywhere. It worked just fine as a fire barrier and an insulator. Then we found out that asbestos fibers don't play well with our lungs, and now there's a whole industry built around safely removing asbestos.

The CDC's description of titanium dioxide is - interesting:

"...Exposure Routes
"inhalation
"Symptoms
"Lung fibrosis; [potential occupational carcinogen]
"Target Organs
"respiratory system
"Cancer Site
"[in animals: lung tumors]..."
("Titanium dioxide," NIOSH HomeNIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards (NIOSH Publication Number 2005-149) (September 2005)

Sounds like the folks at Eindhoven University of Technology have another wonder-mineral on their hands. Yes, at long last the dangers and discomfort of urban pollution are at an end: thanks to the wonders of modern technology!

I can see the ads now: Use new, improved concrete: now with titanium dioxide! It eats nitrogen oxides! Use EUT's new, improved oxide-eating concrete now! Be ecologically aware!

Well, maybe not quite like that. But I'm pretty sure that there's going to be an effort to make cities which don't use EUT's pollutant-eating concrete seem backward, while praising forward-looking outfits that do.

Sounds almost too good to be true: concrete, something that's almost everywhere in contemporary cities, may now absorb pollution.

Carcinogen in Concrete: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Ever notice how, in almost every construction project, there's a lot of dust? Quite a lot of that is from concrete that's pulverized as old sidewalks, roadways, and walls are broken apart to make room for new structures.

Somehow, I don't think that all the titanium dioxide in EUT's wonder-concrete will have reacted with nitrogen oxides, by the time it's knocked apart for street maintenance or new construction.

Some time after that dust settles, my guess is that there's going to be a spike in lung fibrosis and cancer among folks living in ecologically-aware cities.

Smog Blogs, About Pollution and/or Environmental Concerns

Kermit would love these green blogs or posts, each and every one dedicated to the premise, 'the greener, the better.'

• LA Smog Blog "we breathe it"
• Frogs: the Canary in the Biodiversity Mine? This one could have gone with the frog blogs
• The Accidental Environmentalist a look at Eco-friendly living
• The Green Blog "Where Green Bloggers Speak Out"
• U.S. Air Quality / The Smog Blog "USAQ is a daily diary of air quality in the U.S. using information from NASA satellites, ground-based lidar, EPA monitoring networks, and other monitors. Interpretation and analysis is provided by the staff of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Atmospheric Lidar Group."
• the great smog of 1952 a post from "Robs' Blog: ramblings of an american ex-pat from exotic beijing, or: how i learned to stop worrying and love bureaucracy" If you think it's bad now, check out London, 1952.
• The haze/smog is back! a post about Malaysia's annual air pollution, on the "Being Unreasonable" blog