The number of floors in a house affects our lives. Living at high altitude: myths and reality

Many do not even think about this issue, but in vain, because the question is whether it is harmful to live on a high floor, which is not as simple as it seems. Many doctors say that living on high floors is simply unhealthy and here's why……..

Indeed, doctors say that living on a high floor is unhealthy, the maximum allowable size of a house should be limited to the 7th floor, this floor is still acceptable for life.

By the way, the harmfulness of living on high floors is also evidenced by the fact that apartments especially above the 15th floor are cheaper by 10 - 20% than apartments located below the seventh floor, in the same building.

Now a few facts about the harmfulness of living on high floors, which doctors tell us:

1) Electromagnetic geomagnetic field. You know that for each person, for his full life, a certain electromagnetic field of the earth is needed. It is this field that maintains the correct metabolism in a person. So, this field extends from the earth upwards, in total to a height equal to seven floors. Further it is discharged, and people who live above the seventh floor are characterized by frequent illnesses, headaches, drowsiness, etc.

2) Radio waves. It is on the high floors that the radio waves are maximally concentrated, and they reach the ground already weakened. The maximum concentration of radio waves falls on the 9th - 16th floors. As proven by scientists, radio waves in high concentrations also adversely affect human health. For example, the work of a crane operator of high tower cranes is very harmful, and crane operators are paid extra for this, and in the USSR they also gave milk.

3) Height. Now imagine if you live on the 16th - 20th floor and the elevator suddenly breaks down? Well, if you are young and energetic, you can easily lift it, but if you are already over 50 - 60 years old? Here the pressure can jump, and the heart can be naughty, this is a rather difficult overload for the body. That is why life in such houses stops when the elevator breaks down.

Whether it is harmful to live on a high floor is not an unambiguous question, doctors say that it is harmful. However, smog in large cities that does not rise above the 9th floor can give apartments above fairly clean air. YES, and the builders say that nothing is “terrible” - but their task is to get the maximum profit from the building. Especially when the land is very expensive, in the case of Moscow. Therefore, 20-30 storey buildings appear. Personally, I would advise you an apartment on a maximum of 7 - 9 floors, but not on 15 - 20. That's all, read our repair blog

The list of all the pros and cons that a person calculates when choosing a home is impressive. In addition to such characteristics as the number of rooms, the layout of the apartment, the distance from the place of work, the park, the price of the apartment, an important component is the height of the apartment.

An ordinary person is interested in choosing a floor from a purely economic point of view, wasting time, effort on going up or down. Far from always in the first place is the question, is it harmful to live on high floors?

In addition to the individual disadvantages of living on a high floor, people are trying to find pluses. The number of those who think that it is more dangerous to live at heights from different positions is constantly increasing.

Living constantly at a height is harmful to the general condition of the human body. A dull, lethargic state, apathy, frequent headaches, decreased immunity, and much more appear in the body. The causes of all these ailments are a complex of different reasons, not one or two. In some cases, you need to choose the "golden mean". In the presence of specific diseases, the lower floors or semi-basement premises are unacceptable for living.

Why is it worse to live at a height?

What floors are called high and why is it worse to live on them? Construction companies that sell built housing above the 7th floor reduce the price of apartments by 10-15%. To answer the question as to why they do this, one should delve into construction technology in more detail. Studies have shown that the main factors affecting life at altitude are:

The electromagnetic field plays an important role for the human body, since metabolism depends on it. The electromagnetic charge weakens with altitude, which is why drowsiness and headaches often appear in people who constantly live at altitude.
Radio waves are strongest at altitude. Between floors 9-16 they are especially strong. Radio waves in every possible way negatively affect the human body if the house is made of a material that does not prevent their penetration. Therefore, life on the 12th floor is dangerous due to the action of radio waves.
Height itself is a factor of discomfort. Constantly looking down is definitely not comfortable, natural for a person. If we recall the frequent problems with elevators, the frequent lack of water, then there is really little comfort in this.

High floors in houses have not only a negative impact on the human body during the period of his residence. They also have advantages.

Advantages of living on high floors:

The purity of the air at a height in the city is much higher than at the bottom. All traffic dust settles at the bottom. This is only partly because above 30 meters the concentration of emissions from industrial facilities increases dramatically.
Relative silence is an advantage of low platforms. Noise is not the last indicator taken into account when choosing housing in the city.
The absence of moisture, constantly rising from the basement of the house up to the 2nd floor. Permanent fungi and mold in the apartment, and hence diseases such as bronchitis, allergies, pneumonia and others become permanent in the house.

Living at a height has its pros and cons. There are many more disadvantages and harmfulness of living at a height.

Does living at altitude affect people's health?

If a person has chronic diseases that are completely incurable, it is very important to choose the right height for living.

People with different types of lung disease are recommended to stay above 1-2 floors.

Air circulation and dryness are higher here. There are fewer spores of various fungi and moisture that can complicate health less. Allergic diseases that have not occurred before often appear here. Asthmatics in these rooms will practically not be able to live normally.

For a group of people with a disease of the cardiovascular system, both the lowest and the highest floors are contraindicated. At altitude, the complication of diseases will be more intense due to the weak electromagnetic field. At altitude, there is additionally a lower level of oxygen. In this case, the higher, the more harmful. A high house is definitely not suitable for hypertensive patients.

Constant shortness of breath when walking on the stairs is guaranteed for them. It is important for people with this common group of the disease to have access to real life, which is practically non-existent at altitude.

It will be difficult for people with such a group of diseases associated with the endocrine glands to live at altitude, since metabolic processes are far from normal.

Precautions for Living on Different Floors

If the apartment is located on the lower floors in the immediate vicinity of the highway with heavy traffic, it does not make these floors comfortable for living. But on the lower floors, communication with the outside world is maintained.

People living on the lower floors must constantly follow certain rules: ventilate the shaded apartment regularly;if possible, do not install plastic windows or open vents as often as possible for better air exchange;wash floors as often as possible;disinfect floors and walls from various fungal spores;if the apartment is in the vicinity of the roadside, it is worth using ionizers, air purifiers.

If the apartment is located on the upper floors, it is necessary to deal with other problems that are unusual for the lower floors:

constant air humidification, especially in summer;
it is recommended to install a powerful ventilation system that helps recirculate air - this cannot be done in a natural way;
It is impossible to completely avoid the effect of height, so you need to spend as little time as possible in the apartment during the daytime.

Which floor is the most beneficial for the body to live on?

The study showed which floor to live most favorably. According to the recommendations of doctors, it is more useful to live in the city up to the 7th floor. At best, between 2-7 floors. Above the 7th there are some nuances, below the 2nd others. The first 7 floors are called "golden floors". It is desirable that the house was brick or brick-block type.

If the area where the house is located is a sleeping area without greenery around it, then in this case it is recommended to get out into nature regularly. Ideal housing has specific criteria: low to the 7th floor, at least 200 meters away from a busy highway, natural landscapes around the house with trees and preferably a small pond nearby. These criteria when choosing housing in the city are very beneficial for the health of the family. To a simple question, is it harmful to live on high floors for health? We must answer, yes, it’s harmful and we won’t live there for long.

When choosing housing, you can save on money by buying an apartment on the 25th floor, but this will affect your health over time, but the choice is up to each person.

We are presented with work and housing in skyscrapers - as prestige, as an indicator of status. But there are some good reasons to wonder if this environment is right for you.

What you need to know about living on a high floor?

Firstly, scientists have long established the fact that living above the 6th floor is harmful - we lose a full sense of gravity, which causes both somatic and psychological consequences. These include the occurrence of apathy, decreased immunity, the development of various phobias.

Secondly, starting from the 25th floor, it is approximately impossible to open windows. This requires the use of artificial ventilation. About the harm of air conditioners have been talked about for years. These are the bacteria living in the filters, and the dryness of the air, and their breakdown in the heat.

Thirdly, we are all shown breathtaking panoramas from a bird's eye view. And now let's remember the number of clear days in Moscow throughout the year. So, for the most part, the view from 30 and above floors most of the time is a thick veil of clouds. Even people without fear of enclosed spaces begin to feel uncomfortable, to say nothing of those who suffer from claustrophobia.

If you feel dizzy, have discomfort when climbing a high-speed elevator, your heart rate has increased, you feel short of breath and anxiety - all this suggests that you should not stay at such a height for a long time. Of course, a skyscraper is not the best home for family people.

How to minimize the consequences of living at height

Think especially carefully about children and elderly members of your family if you are going to move them to a new apartment “on the clouds”. In children, the nervous system is just beginning to form, and for the reasons listed above, it is harmful for them to constantly be in such conditions. For older people, due to problems with the cardiovascular and nervous systems, height is also harmful.

If you have to be at high altitude, then take care to take multivitamins constantly, be sure to walk in parks and go out into nature. When at a height, try not to place your work or sleeping place next to a window.

Office workers working in skyscrapers, and these are usually large corporations where workers are subjected to daily stress, in a critical situation, may experience bouts of fear of both confined space and heights. And the accumulated stress can be the impetus for the development of the corresponding full-fledged phobias. These are one of the most basic reasons that can shake the nervous system.

A couple of important tips if you are still going to choose a job or an apartment on the high floors of a skyscraper. Think carefully about this decision, visit this place a couple of times in different weather, stay there for at least an hour, ride the elevator. All this time, listen to all the prompts of your body. If everything suits you and you have an apartment above the clouds or you got an office on the 30th floor, then do not forget to go down to the street at lunchtime and arrange a walk for yourself, lasting at least 30 minutes.

Today, in the age of skyscrapers and skyscrapers, more than ever, the question is relevant: is it harmful to live on high floors? To understand this issue and be sure to the end, in this article we will give you all the pros and cons of housing above the 7th floor.

Prospect for the development of high-rise buildings

To date, the technology of building houses has changed a lot - even in the last century there was a completely different approach: the longer the house, the larger it is. In million-plus cities, long houses of the old type still remain. In Russia and the CIS countries, such buildings were built mainly in the Soviet years. At that time, the apartments were mostly of the same plan, and the height of the houses reached a maximum of 12 floors. But now the situation has changed dramatically - it is more convenient for builders to build houses up, because such "house-points" take up little space compared to their counterparts. Buildings begin to reach 25-30 floors, and some of them even become skyscrapers 50 floors high.

Is it harmful to live on high floors? This question worries mainly those who decide to buy an apartment in such a building. And these are young families with children, for example.

Advantages

But first, let's talk about the benefits of living in a high-rise building.

Before you opens a magnificent panorama, a beautiful view. From the aesthetic side, such buildings offer the owner of apartments on the upper floors to enjoy an impressive view from the window.
Many insects (mosquitoes, wasps, midges) do not reach high floors. If you don't like flying insects, which are plentiful in the summer, then an apartment in a tall building is your choice. Not only can most pests simply not get to you, statistics show that the likelihood of the spread of cockroaches and other insects is much less (especially if you do not have pets in your apartment).
The air is cleaner as you move away from the earth. This is a scientific fact. Heavy metals settle below the 7th floor. Emissions from factories and enterprises greatly affect the state of the environment in large cities. So far, no better solution has been found than to live as high as possible so that harmful substances do not enter your body.
Relative silence: cars, trains or loud music from the street won't hurt you. Probably, each of you met in the evening with a loud alarm from a car or other extraneous noise on the street while relaxing. An apartment on a high floor will provide more silence from such inconveniences than an apartment on the first 5 floors.

disadvantages

Now it’s worth talking about the shortcomings of living in high-rise buildings. About whether it is harmful to live on high floors, you will learn from the following disadvantages:

nebula;
increased fire hazard;
stale air;
the likelihood of elevator breakdowns;
power lines;
inability to open windows;
the inconvenience of caring for pets;
high cost.

But first things first.

Nebula

So, perhaps it’s worth starting with the fact that the average person does not quite understand that with a high probability of nebula, he will be very uncomfortable. The higher the floor, the more foggy, if we talk about this phenomenon without going into details. Is it harmful to live on high floors during fog? In some cases, yes.

In big cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg, the phenomenon of smog is often observed. It is formed from many factors, and all of them are often associated with the environment. During smog, the air becomes toxic and can cause both asthma in asthmatics and more serious problems even in healthy people. If you're looking to buy a high-rise apartment, first check the weather reports for the city you're going to live in to help you make the right choice.

Increased fire hazard

This category of harm applies more to skyscrapers or very tall buildings. The fact is that they are lined with glass or its derivatives. Glass transmits light, but it also has the ability to reflect it. Moreover, it is so intense that some glare can heat up a nearby tree, for example. Like a magnifying glass, a skyscraper itself can heat up, and if its builders did not count on it, force majeure can occur. Is it harmful to live above the 7th floor if the house heats up? Yes, definitely. Hot walls increase the overall fire hazard.

It is also worth paying attention to the fact that in case of a real fire it is much more difficult to evacuate from a high-rise building. A high floor is harmful from the point of view of fire safety - the closer the apartment is located to the exit from the building, the more likely it is to leave it in an emergency without taking damage. This should also be taken into account when choosing a tall building for an apartment.

History knows many cases when, due to fires in high-rise buildings, not everyone had time to take the right evacuation measures.

Stale air

Is it harmful to live on high floors? The medical view and assessment suggests that as you move away from the earth, the air becomes more stale. Oxygen is formed from the foliage of plants, and the tallest plants in the city are trees. From the point of view of ecology, the most comfortable floor for housing will be the one that is at the same height as the crowns of trees. In general, a house located next to a park or forest belt is a great combination for the younger generation. Children perceive clean air and the environment much better than adults, so if you have a child, first of all think about his future.

When a person consumes oxygen, the air becomes stale and lighter, going higher and higher. Thus, if you live too high, only stale air will reach you. It is less useful and unsaturated. High floors are unhealthy.

Today, this problem is being solved by building high-rise buildings on the outskirts of the city: creating artificial parks and reserves, and digging river beds. As new residential areas are settled, trees and bushes are planted. But then again, a lot of people live in modern ones, and after a while, a lot of cars appear. This explains why it is harmful to live above the 7th floor. People who live too high have practically no undischarged air. But if you leave the house every day and take a walk, then the artificial park will help you get enough clean and fresh air.

The likelihood of elevator breakdowns

Imagine that you live on the 25th floor. There are several elevators in your house, as expected, but suddenly it happens that all of them at one moment become unavailable, or simply out of order. What to do? That's right, there is only one way out - to go home on foot, up the stairs. Naturally, many will even consider walking as a plus - training for the body, but not all people run in the morning and go in for sports. Therefore, it is impossible to say for sure which floor above is unhealthy to live in terms of such a force majeure.

Fortunately, today in every new high-rise building, elevators are duplicated, and in some front rooms, both 3 and 4 elevators are installed. It all depends on the means and the desire of the developer to make his home more comfortable.

Power lines

Few people know, but power lines have a detrimental effect on health. High-voltage portals, power lines and substations create an electromagnetic field of a certain radius during their operation. This is confirmed by many studies. Is it harmful to live on high floors if there is a power line nearby? Definitely yes. You do not notice, but the electromagnetic field affects you constantly in different situations: telephone network, wireless Internet, antennas - all these devices create a field around them. True, it is worth making a reservation, because the fields emitted by these devices are normalized and even when working together they cannot cause much harm to health.

But with power grids and towers standing next to houses, the situation is different: as a rule, if a power line passes near a new building, this means that the developer simply decided to save money on the construction site. And people living on high floors can really be at risk. The electromagnetic field affects the human psyche. You become more irritable and depressed. Prolonged exposure to the field can even lead to infertility, so when choosing an apartment in a high-rise building, you need to pay attention to such a seemingly imperceptible, at first glance, problem.

Can't open windows?

The main problem in skyscrapers, which no real estate agent will tell you about, is that windows above the 30th floor simply cannot be opened. That is why the cladding, at least on the upper floors, is made panoramic, and air conditioners are used instead of vents. In general, as you climb in the house, many factors change, one of the most important is the atmosphere. The air from air conditioners helps to maintain balance, and at the same time provides a favorable temperature for people and rooms. Air conditioners in themselves do not cause any harm, but the impossibility of opening windows for some becomes a good reason not to buy an apartment in a high-rise building.

Disadvantages of pet care

This problem only applies to pet lovers who take their pets for walks on a daily basis. If, for example, you have a big dog that needs to be walked every day, first think about buying an apartment in a high-rise. After all, you will spend enough time just to leave the house. Coupled with non-working elevators, it is possible to go down and up the stairs on foot.

Moreover, some animals are very sensitive to the environment they are in, which means that a high floor can only harm them. As a rule, living with pets is more convenient if the apartment is closer to the exit from the entrance, so it is definitely worth taking into account that caring for a pet on high floors is a rather difficult task.

high cost

And of course, the main disadvantage for residents of such houses is that as the floor increases, so does the price per square meter of an apartment. This is due to the fact that tall houses are harder to build and many would prefer to buy apartments on the top floors than on the first. The rent here is also higher than the first, because the water pressure, for example, is required more for the upper floors.

Conclusion

Despite all the shortcomings, life on a high floor may seem more comfortable for many, for some it is generally a luxury. The vast majority, according to polls, choose to live high up rather than on the first floors. Everyone will decide for himself where to live less unhealthy and more prosperous.

Illustration: Olga Denisova

Moscow, like most modern megacities, is growing upwards. Every year more and more high-rise buildings dig into the sky, many of which are designed for housing. Buyers of apartments often choose higher floors for the views and the feeling of flying when looking out the window. But isn't it dangerous for us to settle on the 30th floor? Colleagues from the popular science magazine "Schrödinger's Cat" helped to understand the topic.

Strictly speaking, in fact, there is no floor on which life would be impossible. However, environmentalists do not recommend climbing above the fifth or sixth floor. Above the eighth - immunologists do not recommend. Above the 25th - firefighters. It turns out that the air above the sixth floor is not as clean as it seems. "Genies" of high factory pipes fumigate the city just at this level and above. Therefore, fans of charging on the balcony are advised to first find out the strength and direction of the wind.

Every third earthling suffers from claustrophobia (fear of closed spaces) and agoraphobia (fear of open spaces). People begin to suffer if some external factors awaken these dormant ailments. Constant stay at the height of a bird's eye view is one of the options for such an awakening. If a person is too high from the ground, the body perceives the location as unnatural, and therefore it is difficult for him to relax and feel safe.

Another nuance: the higher the number of storeys, the thinner the design. The difference in wall thickness on the first and 21st floors is needed to lighten the top of the building. Therefore, the audibility "at the top" is very high. The result is the accumulated psychological stress, the lack of a sense of solitude. Plus, because of their "sophistication", the tops of skyscrapers tend to vibrate. These micro-oscillations are not audible to the human ear, but irritate the nervous system. A person may experience anxiety up to horror for no apparent reason to panic.

In 2013, researchers from the University of Bern (Switzerland) published an article in the European Journal of Epidemiology, in which they analyzed the mortality statistics of the Swiss, depending on which floor they lived on. The sample, on the basis of which the researchers conducted their work, amounted to one and a half million people - scientists were admitted to the population census data for 2000-2008.

The verdict is this: the statistical mortality rate for residents of high-rise buildings decreases with increasing height. Residents on the first floor are 22 percent "deadlier" than their neighbors living on the eighth floor and above. They are 40 percent more likely to die from respiratory disease, 35 percent more likely to die from heart failure, and a person living on the first floor is 22 percent more likely to get lung cancer than a person living on the eighth floor.

The only thing in which the citizens living at a height are inferior to their neighbors below is the frequency of deaths that occurred as a result of "going out the window." Among those living above the tops of trees, there are 41 percent more "ejected" suicides.

In 2007, social psychologist Robert Gifford wrote a long review article for Architectural Science Review on the psychological and sociological aspects of skyscraper life. It turned out that the average resident of a high-rise building has fewer friends than someone who lives in a low-rise building.

The inhabitants of low houses are more likely to be satisfied with their lives than the inhabitants of high buildings. Children living on the upper floors are less likely to be allowed to play outside, as it is difficult to keep track of them through the window. In addition, neighbors in a multi-storey building communicate with each other the least of all existing forms of hostel.

In general, there is no unequivocal advice on which floor to choose for housing, unfortunately. Stop at the height, preventing the most negative consequences for you.

Marina Lubenko, Ivan Shunin

About "Physics of the city"

Every day, waking up in the morning, we are immersed in a city full of textures, sounds and colors. While we go to work and walk in the park, a million questions come to our minds about how everything around us works in this huge metropolis. Why don't skyscrapers fall? How is it different from the blood of a villager? Above which floor should you not live and why?

We invited colleagues from the magazine "Schrödinger's Cat" to answer our questions and explain why abundance is dangerous, how our breath is dangerous to others and. This is how the Physics of the City project was born. Look for new questions and new answers on our website on Mondays and Thursdays.