What does the body of evidence say on air quality and how to protect ourselves from airborne pollution? Plus: a birth control pill becomes easier to access in the Republic of Gilead, and Chris returns to the hot seat to help a lawyer with blood-streaked loose stool! Block 1: (2:11) Air Quality: forest fires and their causes; major air pollutants; what causes air pollution; improvements in air quality Block 2: (8:56) Air Quality: what the air quality index is; why there are different indices in different countries; whether poor air quality leads to poor health outcomes; biomass air pollution; how we can protect ourselves Block 3: (24:03) An over-the-counter birth control pill in the USA Block 4: (33:15) Chris becomes House, MD. His patient: a lawyer with blood-streaked loose stool   Jingle by Jillian Correia of Roctavio Canada * Theme music: “Fall of the Ocean Queen“ by Joseph Hackl   To contribute to The Body of Evidence, go to our Patreon page at: http://www.patreon.com/thebodyofevidence/. To make a one-time donation to our show, you can now use PayPal! https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=9QZET78JZWCZE Patrons get a bonus show on Patreon called “Digressions”! Check it out!   References: 1) Basics of air quality: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-pollution/research-science/about/air-quality-overview.html 2) Sources of air pollution: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/air-pollutant-emissions.html 3) Quantifying the risk of air pollution: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/1104975 4) The WHO’s estimates of premature deaths worldwide in 2019 due to poor air quality: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ambient-(outdoor)-air-quality-and-health 5) The Air Quality Index: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-quality-health-index/about.html & https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-quality-health-index/understanding-messages.html & https://www.epa.gov/outdoor-air-quality-data/how-aqi-calculated 6) Report on the health effects of air quality: https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/news/reducing-air-pollution-uk-progress-report-2018 7) The Harvard Six Cities study: https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.200503-443OC 8) Cochrane review on individual-level interventions to reduce exposure to air pollution: https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD013441.pub2 9) The case of the 36-year-old lawyer with blood-streaked loose stool: https://reference.medscape.com/viewarticle/993938_1   It’s Not Twitter, But It’ll Do: 1) Jonathan’s article on transcranial direct current stimulation: https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-technology/brain-zapping-may-probably-appear-be-doing-something 2) Jonathan on the Conspirituality podcast to discuss Andrew Huberman: https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/163-the-huberman-paradox-jonathan-jarry 3) Jonathan is now on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jonathanjarry.bsky.social 4) Chris wrote a book called Does Coffee Cause Cancer? Pre-order it now! https://ecwpress.com/products/does-coffee-cause-cancer?_pos=1&_sid=e672b52c1&_ss=r