Originally Posted by *******

I never tested the air there but living away from busy roads, airports, and shipping ports such as LBC is the best thing you can do. I forget the exact info in the recent studies but you should be living at least 1000 ft away from a busy road.

There is some controversy that in LA the city spent millions building up cheap and free housing along the 405, 101, and 10 freeways. Most of the households have multiple children so now those low income families are sucking in car and truck exhaust all fucking day long. Even triple pane windows does not help because the particles that are the most dangerous also can penetrate even the most minute cracks and crevices. You could have to live in a bubble to keep it out.

There have been studies in Germany several years ago and more recently UCLA has also been working on this. I am too lazy to dig them up. The UCLA results revealed that these clouds of very small particles stay suspended and form clouds that move a few miles in any direction. So if you are one of the joggers along San Vincente Blvd in Santa Monica and then hoofing up the Santa Monica steps you are sometimes (depending on time and day and wind) breathing much of the same particles as the poor guy who has a house a block from the 405/10 interchange.

What I find interesting is people living in Bel Air, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades etc are the type that would never drink tap water like the people in lower income areas do but they are breathing the same exact dirty air as everyone else.

But yeah to answer your question directly I would say living away from pollution sources is much better then any air purifier. And since you are in SoCal you can just open your windows up at least once a day and blow it out with fans. Those small Vornados are great. I have one in every room and they keep the air so fresh I love it.