A Singaporean In Australia

An average non-exercising adult takes in about 0.84 kg of oxygen a day. If that sounds very little to you, think again. To most, air is very light, seemingly weightless and that is the point here. Just how much is 0.84kg of oxygen?

The average adult at rest inhales and exhales something like 11,000 litres of air in a day. The air that is inhaled is about 20% oxygen and that works out to be 2200 litres of oxygen. That is how much oxygen we takes in every day. However out of this 20%, we consume only about 5% of oxygen. We exhale the rest of it. That works out to about only 550 litres of oxygen consumed per day. Well, if you consider how much water we drink per day, our oxygen consumption is easily 100 folds over.

For the entire 8 months, we were fortunate to have Albany in pink of health. However, she fell sick on the second day of our return to Singapore. For the entire first week, she coughed intensely through constant medication but manage to recover on the 8th to 9th day, much to our relief. Whenever we brought this up to anyone, their reaction would be, "It's the air!" Thinking back, the whitish smog that engulfed the skyline when we touched down was indeed a possible suspect.

On the first Tuesday, Angie and Lexis kindly gave me a lift to a coffeeshop in Tampines where I met Mr Gintai, the famous MRT king blogger. That - was another story for another day. The conservation between Angie and I in the car ride instead, was relevant to this topic. When asked where she was from, Angie had to stress that her family was from Ipoh (did I get this wrong?) but she grew up in JB. When I asked her why must she be specific about where she grew up most of her life, she revealed that the women of her birth place are famously beautiful. (modestly implying she wasn't)

"Where's the link here Angie?" I asked.

"The girls there grew up drinking good water and breathing good air," came the reply.

Ah. What do you think? I think it makes some sense. Of course, our general appearance such as features and shape are determined genetically in which the environment we grow up in has no bearings on. But if we grow up in good climate, taking in clean, fresh air, the quality of our skin and hair will definitely be better. And it is hard to dispute that beautiful looking half and flawless skin makes one look better.

As far as I'm concerned, Albany's rosy cheeks disappeared during our return to Singapore, replaced by heat rashes on her face and neck. The rashes disappeared very quickly in a few days when we came back to Perth. To me, the issue about air quality wasn't about beauty but health. If we liken a human body to a car autonomy, our lungs would be our air filter. It isn't difficult to figure out that no filter in the world has an 100% efficiency. I reckon the same for any pair of lungs, regardless of which model we are installed with. That simply means that oxygen through the limited filter goes in our blood steam and our heart pumps the blood to everywhere else that requires oxygen. 

That includes our brain.

A good climate also helps moderate our mood and general attitude, though a good climate doesn't necessarily equate to good air. It is straightforward though, when it comes to good air. Good air helps in our general well being.  Angie was probably right. It makes us prettier too. Since we are a concrete jungle in Singapore, I''ll recommend going into nature reserves early morning in the weekends to take in good fresh air. Why early morning? It is when mosquitoes are not in their full zeal yet.