Theoretically speaking

I have come up with a theory.

Nate has had a running nose for most of the year.  All of us are constantly tired, even where we try to catch up and go to bed at 7pm.  I thought that it might be the 5am starts and we are just worn down.  But then I came across an article in the Gulf Times that caught my attention and made me think a little bit.  It made reference to the fact that MENA (Middle East North Africa) has the highest concentration of air pollutants in the world.

According the the World Health Organization (WHO), the acceptable concentration of air pollutants per metre cubed is 20mcg/m3 (mcg = micrograms).  In Iran, the reading earlier this week was 372mcg/m3, almost 19 times what is acceptable.  The Middle East has an average reading of 130mcg/m3.  So on a good day here the air is still bad.

I could not see the city line from my bathroom window the other day.  There is a smear of brown across the sky.  If there is a smear of brown across the sky over there, then what are the people in the city seeing when they look back at me?

We are surrounded by refineries, V8 SUVs and dust kicked up from the surrounding deserts.  For example, I had sand in my teeth the other day and my nose was all stuffed up.  There are other contributing factors as well such as pollution from ships, pollution from incineration of trash, pollution from aircrafts, pollution from exploration and exploitation of the sea, continental shelf and land, and whatever else is going on that we don't know about.  Basically, we are surrounded by things that cause the air quality to be compromised.

So back to my theory.  We inhale, the air is captured in our lungs, the oxygen is dissolved and becomes part of our blood stream.  In other words, the air become part of us.  If it is not of good quality, would it not make perfect sense that we are feeling tired because we are deprived of quality air?  I'm sure that this is not rocket science.

I shared my theory in the grade 12 common room today and there was one kid, who looked really tired, and his eyes lit up.  It was like I made sense of why he was feeling like crap all the time.

Anyways, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it!