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Re: Fans these days seem to pollute the air
From: andymhancock@gmail.com (AndyHancock)
On Aug 7, 6:55 am, AndyHancock <andymhanc...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Aug 7, 3:09 am, rmjon23 <rmjo...@aol.com> wrote:
On Aug 6, 11:56 pm, AndyHancock <andymhanc...@gmail.com> wrote:
I live in a metropolitan city in Ontario, Canada. No matter what
quality of fan I buy (box fan, standup oscillating fan, from bargain
basement to the highest quality I can find), it often starts to
aggravate my breathing within the year. When I first turn on the fan,
I smell a moment of odour like motor lubricant and plastic. Then I
stop noticing it, but within 30-60 minutes, I feel my lungs getting
congested, my nasal passages and back of throat feel aggravated in a
scratchy way. If I go to the gym or just away from my (1-room)
apartment, I continue harumphing for hours. This is for each one of
the many fans that I've owned. For some of the cheaper fans, if I
hang on to them, the odour gets noticably worse as the months go buy,
beginning to smell a bit like diesel (though I know that's
impossible).
Do other people with sensitive respiratory systems find this trend? I
wonder if it's because all fan motors are made in a country with a
poor quality/health track record? I am not being unjustly
discriminatory, as I have have a certain cultural extraction from the
main suspect country that I have in mind. I am just trying to find a
solution to the problem that has plagued me for years, and is driving
me insane.
Thanks for sharing your anecdotes, corroborative or otherwise.
P.S. So sad to see that usenet is falling out of use. I tried to
track down the proprietary forum group that has attracted users away
(asthma.ca), but my account has gone inactive. Activating it seems to
be rather round-about and won't be happening until the admins get
around to request. Never had such complications with usenet.
I wonder if - maybe? - you are misattributing the flareups to the new
fan, when what you've done is stir up dust with the new fan?
I've always been jealous of fellow asthmatics who are well-off enough
to have a housekeeper keep the place (relatively) dust-free...which is
sorta absurd: if I'm "jealous" shouldn't I be jealous of all the
people who don't have asthma at all?
Anyway...
I keep the place pretty clean. It seems to be a problem when the fan
gets a bit old. I also experimented. There is no correlation with
the days that I do cleaning. Neither is there a correlation with
whether I keep the fan by the window for ventilation or simply in the
middle of the room for the breeze. When I operate the fan by the
window, I experimented with operating an exhaust fan in the kitchen (1-
room apartment), and no correlation. I also tried running a HEPA
filter with the windows closed, and the fan operating. No correlation
with the use of the filter. The only correlation is with the use of
the fan, an in particular, when I am directly in the path of the
nonoscillating fan for lengthy periods.
Oh, yeah, there is an uncertain positive correlation with ambient
temperature, and with the speed of the fan. I wonder if the fan gets
hot, leaks lubricant, and causes it to evaporate into the stream of
air? Or eating up some plastic parts (other than the housing) and
causing out-gassing into the stream of air? Or maybe the motor is
creating ozone.
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