In the village of Nikolskoye, on a holiday, people went to mass. The cowgirl, the headman and the groom remained in the manor's yard. The cowgirl went to the well for water. The well was right in the yard. She pulled out the tub, but couldn’t hold it. The tub fell off, hit the wall of the well and tore off the rope. The cowgirl returned to the hut and said to the elder:
- Alexander! Get down into the well, father, - I missed the tub.

Alexander said:
- You missed it, you get it.
The cowgirl said that she would probably climb herself, just so that he would lower her.
The elder laughed at her and said:
- Well, let's go. You are now on an empty stomach, so I will hold you; and after lunch I can’t hold it back.
The headman tied a stick to a rope, and the woman sat astride it, took hold of the rope and began to climb down into the well, and the headman began to lower her by the wheel. The well was only six arshins deep, and there was only an arshin of water standing. The headman slowly lowered the wheel and kept asking:
- More, or what?
The cowgirl shouted from there:
- A little more!
Suddenly the elder felt that the rope had become loose; he called out to the cowgirl, but she did not answer. The elder looked into the well and saw that the woman was lying in the water with her head and upside down. The headman began to shout and call the people; but there was no one there. Only one groom came. The elder told him to hold the wheel, and he pulled out the rope, sat on a stick and climbed into the well.
As soon as the groom lowered the headman to the water, the same thing happened to the headman. He threw the rope and fell headfirst onto the woman. The groom began to shout, then ran into the church after the people. Mass had departed, and the people were leaving the church. All the men and women ran to the well. Everyone crowded around the well, and everyone shouted their own, but no one knew what to do. The young carpenter Ivan made his way through the crowd to the well, grabbed a rope, sat on a stick and ordered himself to be lowered. Ivan just tied himself to the rope with a sash. Two of them lowered him, and the others all looked into the well to see what would happen to Ivan. As soon as he began to reach the water, he threw the rope with his hands and would have fallen headfirst, but the sash held him.
Everyone shouted:
- Drag him back! - And Ivan was pulled out.
He hung on the sash as if dead, his head also hung and beat against the edges of the well. The face was blue-purple. They took him out, took him off the rope and laid him on the ground. They thought he was dead; but he suddenly breathed heavily, began to choke, and came to life.
Then they wanted to climb more, but one old man said that it was impossible to climb, because there was bad air in the well and that this bad air was killing people. Then the men ran for the hooks and began to pull out the elder and the woman. The elder's wife and mother cried out at the well, others calmed them down, and the men hooked them in the well with hooks and tried to pull out the dead. Once or twice they dragged the elder to half the well by his dress; but he was heavy, the dress was torn, and he broke down. Finally, they hooked him onto two hooks and pulled him out. Then they pulled out the cowgirl too. Both were already completely dead and did not come back to life.
Then, when they began to inspect the well, they found out for sure that there was bad air at the bottom of the well.

Why does a person need fresh air?

The lack of air cannot be compared with anything. A person can do without food and drink for some time, but he cannot do without air for even a few minutes. Only presence fresh air can be the key to a healthy lifestyle.

Continuing the comparison with food and drink, it should be noted that their consumption is healthy in moderation. But the same cannot be said for air. There is never too much of it. It is even more necessary.

Why do people need clean air so much? Regular quiet walks promote an almost imperceptible, slow increase in breathing levels. At the same time, the heart rate increases at the same rhythm.

Metabolism is activated. The heart muscle does not take the load because these processes occur slowly. She exercises in this way, which reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Chemical composition of air:

Nitrogen - 78%
Oxygen - 21%
Argon - 0.93%
Carbon dioxide - 0.033%
Neon 0.0018%
Helium 0.00052%
Methane 0.00020%
Krypton 0.00011%

Everyday stay in the fresh, clean air promotes hardening of the body, enriches the blood with oxygen, which has a productive effect on metabolism.

The body, getting used to changes, is protected from excessive sensitivity to weather changes. Without fresh air there is no good sleep, and healthy sleep is the key to a balanced mental state.

This state of affairs forces us to develop the following practical standards of life.

It is better to choose walking routes away from areas of heavy traffic. It can be difficult to find a place for everyday walks where the air is cleanest. In this case, it is better to walk from work, and choose a different route each time, avoid the proximity of factories and factories.

The air composition is not the same everywhere. The air in rural areas is strikingly different from urban air. See for yourself how city air harms our lungs:

Concentration of harmful substances in the air

What turns city air into poison:

1 Vehicle emissions

40 kg Nitric oxide
200 kg. Hydrocarbon

2 Industrial waste

Arsenic, phosphorus
Lead, antimony

If possible, it is better to get out of the city, to the village, to the sea, to the mountains. Only there you can really breathe clean air, which will improve your mood and well-being.

The habit of being outdoors is very good for the eyes. Nothing weakens vision more, making a person myopic, than constantly being in a room where the gaze is constantly focused on the walls.

The habit of seeing only close objects causes a person to forever lose the ability to see into the distance. Residents of rural areas suffer from myopia less than city residents.

Residents of big cities are better off living on the upper floors. This is explained by different concentrations of harmful substances in the air directly near the ground and at altitude.

Moderate temperature conditions in residential areas are important for maintaining health and longevity. When choosing between a cool room and an overly warm one, it is better to choose a cool room. Heat significantly speeds up life processes, as evidenced by the average life expectancy of a person living in hot climates.

Meanwhile, many are accustomed to excessively heating living spaces, thereby accelerating the development of life, like the development of flowers in greenhouses and vegetables in greenhouses. You shouldn't rush life. A useful temperature in a room is considered to be 18 or 19° Celsius.

Make the most of your time.

Many people dream of living in environmentally friendly conditions. However, not everyone has the opportunity to live in a place where the air is filled with freshness. Most people have to inhale dirty city air, which causes irreparable harm to the body. This problem is especially relevant for residents of industrial cities. Many factories emitting harmful substances into the atmosphere, a lot of cars emitting exhaust gases, cannot but affect the health of the population. Why is city air so dangerous?

First of all, a poor environmental situation negatively affects the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. People who regularly inhale harmful particles in the air develop hypertension. Research shows that even 10 weeks of exposure to hazardous substances is enough to predispose you to hypertension.

Polluted air contains substances that, when ingested by young people, provoke the development of various cardiovascular diseases. The risk of developing myocardial infarction and inflammatory heart diseases, leading to massive cell death of this vital organ, increases significantly.

When coal burns, microparticles of soot enter the air. Penetrating into the body, they often become the cause of the development of venous thrombosis. Blood clots form in the veins of the lower extremities. When they come off, they migrate through the body with the bloodstream, leading to pulmonary embolism. This disease often causes death.

Ultrafine particles contained in dirty air easily enter the human body. They can cause increased platelet formation. These elements are responsible for blood clotting. However, with increased formation, they become the cause of plaques in the blood vessels. This disrupts normal blood flow to the heart muscle. As a result, oxygen starvation occurs and blood circulation is impaired.

Polluted air has a negative effect on the body of people suffering from diabetes, bronchial asthma, and chronic diseases of internal organs. Polluted air affects the blood, changing its physical and chemical properties and composition. Regular inhalation of harmful particles causes disruption of protein, water and carbohydrate metabolism. Decay products remain in the body in large quantities, their gradual accumulation leads to disruption of the functioning of internal organs and systems. Dirty air affects a person's appearance. The skin loses its elasticity, becomes dry, and becomes covered with wrinkles. Young people look much older than their biological age.

Disturbed metabolism cannot but lead to disruption of the endocrine glands. The result is hormonal disorders that cause various diseases. The thyroid gland is most often affected.

Polluted air negatively affects the general condition of a person. With regular inhalation of dangerous microparticles, rapid fatigue, frequent headaches, hearing and vision impairment, decreased mental performance, and a tendency to frequent allergic reactions and colds are observed.

Today, there are devices that are used to purify indoor air. They are able to blow air through a system of filter elements, thereby cleaning it from harmful impurities. Depending on the technical characteristics, air purifiers have varying degrees of purification. Cheap devices remove only large mechanical particles from the air (household dust, animal hair, poplar fluff). More expensive and advanced models provide the function of neutralizing exhaust particles, tobacco smoke and other harmful impurities.

Household appliances use various filter elements. HEPA filters allow you to clean the air from mechanical contaminants. Activated carbon neutralizes unpleasant odors in the room. The electrostatic filter collects particles of smoke, resins, and dust. The photocatalytic filter breaks down harmful substances into harmless ones (under the influence of ultraviolet light).

Household cleaners whose filter element is water are very effective. This device perfectly purifies the air, humidifies it, makes it lighter and fresher. Devices that combine the functions of air purification, humidification and ionization have proven their effectiveness. Negative ions that are released into the atmosphere have a positive effect on the health of people suffering from diseases of the respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems. They strengthen human immunity.

The choice of air purifiers is quite wide. People who care about their health should definitely purchase such a device. After all, clean air is the key to good health.

- Alexander! get down into the well, father, - I missed the tub. - Alexander said:

- You missed it, you get it. “The cowgirl said that she would probably climb herself, just so that he would lower her.”

The elder laughed at her and said:

- Well, let's go. You are now on an empty stomach, so I will hold you; and after lunch I can’t hold it back.

The headman tied a stick to a rope, and the woman sat astride it, took hold of the rope and began to climb down into the well, and the headman began to lower her by the wheel. The well was only six arshins deep, and there was only an arshin of water standing. The headman slowly lowered the wheel and kept asking: “More, or what?” The cowgirl screamed from there: “Just a little more!”

Suddenly the elder felt that the rope had become loose; he called out to the cowgirl, but she did not answer. The elder looked into the well and saw that the woman was lying in the water with her head and upside down. The headman began to shout and call the people; but there was no one there. Only one groom came. The elder told him to hold the wheel, and he pulled out the rope, sat on a stick and climbed into the well.

As soon as the groom lowered the headman to the water, the same thing happened to the headman. He threw the rope and fell headfirst onto the woman. The groom began to shout, then ran into the church after the people. Mass had departed, and the people were leaving the church. All the men and women ran to the well. Everyone crowded around the well, and everyone shouted their own, but no one knew what to do. The young carpenter Ivan made his way through the crowd to the well, grabbed the rope, sat on a stick and ordered himself to be lowered. Ivan just tied himself to the rope with a sash. Two of them lowered him, and the others all looked into the well to see what would happen to Ivan. As soon as he began to reach the water, he threw the rope with his hands and would have fallen, but the sash held him. Everyone shouted: “Pull him back!” - and Ivan was pulled out.

He hung on the sash as if dead, his head also hung and beat against the edges of the well. The face was blue?purple. They took him out, took him off the rope and laid him on the ground. They thought he was dead; but he suddenly breathed heavily, began to choke, and came to life.

Then they wanted to climb more, but one old man said that it was impossible to climb, because there was bad air in the well, and that this bad air was killing people. Then the men ran for the hooks and began to pull out the elder and the woman. The elder's wife and mother cried out at the well, others calmed them down, and the men hooked them in the well with hooks and tried to pull out the dead. Once or twice they dragged the elder to half the well by his dress; but he was heavy, the dress was torn, and he broke down. Finally, they hooked him onto two hooks and pulled him out. Then they pulled out the cowgirl too. Both were already completely dead and did not come back to life.

Then, when they began to inspect the well, they found out for sure that there was bad air at the bottom of the well.

Air in the house: Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is essential for human life; it stimulates the functioning of various body systems, the activity of the brain, heart, lungs, etc. The normal concentration of CO2 in the air should not exceed 0.1%. The air in the house oversaturated with carbon dioxide can negatively affect a person’s well-being, even leading to death. We ourselves are the source of carbon dioxide. When we inhale oxygen, it is carried throughout the body through the blood, and as a result of chemical reactions when interacting with food, it turns into carbon dioxide and is released into the atmosphere through the lungs. In unventilated areas, its concentration may exceed the norm, and then you may experience symptoms such as headache, fatigue, difficulty breathing, cough and many others.
Carbon dioxide is also one of the products of combustion of natural gas, usually used in everyday life during cooking and in the kitchen, its concentration is higher than in any other places in the living room, so it is very important to make sure that the ventilation system is working properly.

Air in the house: Toxins
So air in the house may be dangerous because it concentrates substances such as formaldehyde, radon and benzene.
Formaldehyde is a toxic carcinogen that is released from plastic, fibrous materials, has a very negative effect on the respiratory system, skin, eyes, and reproductive organs; often in residential premises the concentration of formaldehyde exceeds the permissible limit (10 micrograms per cubic meter). Benzene is found mainly in paints and solvents, Motorists are especially often exposed to benzene since it is often added to motor fuel. It can cause dizziness, headache, and, at higher doses, nausea, but if a person is constantly exposed to the action of this substance, then this can cause and. Radon often accumulates in rooms built of stone or brick; emerging from the earth's crust, it is more concentrated in the lower floors of the building and basements, and can cause lung cancer. Wooden houses are considered the safest in terms of radon accumulation.
To improve the quality air in the house, it is recommended to ventilate rooms as often as possible, as well as cabinets and various closed kitchen drawers, carry out wet cleaning or use air purifiers, and of course keep indoor plants that absorb carbon dioxide in return, filling the air with oxygen and some of them neutralize radiation from household appliances .

The air we breathe. Harm and health benefits

Why does a person need fresh air?

Concentration of harmful substances in the air