Breathing fresh air in the mornings is great for the body. But if you are living in big, crowded city, then morning fresh air is just a thing of dreams. In big cities people now days are becoming more aware of this problem and trying to devise methods of breathing fresher air like using air purifiers, using indoor plants, not stepping out of the house when pollution levels are the most. The times when the pollution level of the air is at maximum can be checked out and people can avoid stepping out at those times. The pollution in the air can especially be bad for small children playing outside, people with heart conditions, old people, people with breathing problems, etc.
What you can do is check the air quality index of the city you are living in or traveling to at different times of the day. So you can avoid stepping out at the time when the air is dense with pollution.
What is air quality index?
Air Quality Index is a scale defined by government to inform people about the current air pollution level in your city or even a forecast of how polluted the air will become. When this air quality index increases beyond the normal limit the people living in that particular city can have breathing disorders or other severe health effects. Different countries have different air quality indices. The above screenshot shows one such air quality index where different colors represent different levels of air pollution.
How to know the air quality index of a city?
The answer is pretty simple, Google. You can go to the google home page, and in the search bar write Air Quality “name of city” and search. This can be seen in the screenshot below.
The air quality index for the city that you searched will be shown. The index will be displayed as well, marked with different air pollution level numbers and colors showing the severity of pollution.
Different colors represent different levels of pollution also marked with numbers. You can see the first screenshot in this article which is a table defining each color and the level of pollution it represents.
So green is safe and maroon is hazardous. Each search you do is also accompanied by a health message at the bottom of the index. It is more like a advisory for people.
If the air is hazardously polluted then you will be alerted to suspend all outdoor activities. Specially people with breathing issues, heart conditions should avoid outdoor activities.
Conclusion:
It is good to know the level of pollution that you are facing in your city and it may vary during different times in the day. So you can pick a time when the pollution is moderate or low to step out of your house for various activities. You can also use this to check the pollution level in a city that you are traveling to or maybe thinking of moving to.
