The effects of Delhi’s pollution is known worldwide by now and with each passing day, it only seems to be increasing. In a recent study, it was found out that breathing Delhi’s air is equal to smoking 7.7 cigarettes!
A new smartphone application, launched in Paris last month, attempts to put in perspective just how dangerous the levels of air pollution across the world is, and this is the observation it made.
It uses location-specific data for the PM2.5 pollutant to calculate the quality of air in terms of cigarettes smoked. PM2.5 is floating particulate matter that includes both organic and inorganic pollutants. Their diameter is less than 2.5 microns, which means they can enter the respiratory system easily.
The app, called ‘Shoot! I Smoke’, uses a study by Berkeley Earth, a California-based climate science analysis to make the calculation. It’s available free on both Android and iOS platforms.
The app’s developers used real-time air pollution data from the World Air Quality Index project and geo-locates one’s phone through the global positioning system (GPS) and connects it to the database, which shows the number of cigarettes smoked that day.
While the functioning of the app sounds cool, it really puts things in perspective for us Delhiites.
All you non-smokers out there it is time to ask yourself how many cigarettes did you smoke today?!
Read the whole story here.
Cover Image Courtesy | Source
