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A Quarter of Americans Spend All Day Inside, Survey Finds (washingtontimes.com)
Zorro shares a report from The Washington Times: A quarter of Americans spend almost an entire 24 hours without going outside and downplay the negative health effects of only breathing indoor air, according to a new survey claiming a new "indoor generation." It's unclear how dangerous indoor air is in the modern era -- reports by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency evaluating indoor air quality are from 1987 and 1989, which found that it is two to five times more polluted than outside.
The "Indoor Generation Report" surveyed 16,000 people from 14 countries in Europe and North America about their knowledge and perceptions of indoor vs outdoor air quality and the amount of time spent inside. Of the results for Americans, a quarter said they spend between 21 and 24 hours inside; 20 percent said they spend 19 to 20 hours a day inside and 21 percent say they spend between 15 and 18 hours inside. Thirty-four percent said they spend between zero and 14 hours inside. Great Britain and Canada had similar results to the U.S., with 23 and 26 percent of its respondents saying they spend between 21 and 24 hours inside. The countries with the highest percentage of people who spend the lowest amount of time inside were Italy (57 percent), the Czech Republic (57 percent) and the Netherlands (51 percent). This group said they only spend between zero and 14 hours indoors.
The "Indoor Generation Report" surveyed 16,000 people from 14 countries in Europe and North America about their knowledge and perceptions of indoor vs outdoor air quality and the amount of time spent inside. Of the results for Americans, a quarter said they spend between 21 and 24 hours inside; 20 percent said they spend 19 to 20 hours a day inside and 21 percent say they spend between 15 and 18 hours inside. Thirty-four percent said they spend between zero and 14 hours inside. Great Britain and Canada had similar results to the U.S., with 23 and 26 percent of its respondents saying they spend between 21 and 24 hours inside. The countries with the highest percentage of people who spend the lowest amount of time inside were Italy (57 percent), the Czech Republic (57 percent) and the Netherlands (51 percent). This group said they only spend between zero and 14 hours indoors.
Instead of wildly claiming some fact can't be true or is "silly" because that's just how you feel, take two seconds to google it.
There's actual research on this. Claiming indoor air is worse is not "silly."
Given the age of the study, I wonder how heavily skewed it is from how buildings were constructed in the 1950's-1970's. You know, before all of our modern regulations and standards, and back when a lot more people smoked. I recall "indoors" having a very different feel back then, especially in places where older people lived.
One of my favorite sci-fi futures is where all of humanity lives in archologies and nature is allowed to go rampant outside them. (The idea being that the population remains similar to what it is today, but the people are concentrated geographically.) One of the objections to the idea of archologies is that humanity wouldn't do well cooped up inside all day. It looks like we might be moving that way anyway.
Space Shuttle was a program that strapped humans to an explosion and tried to stab through the sky with fire and math