The Clean Air Nation app by Greenpeace can be downloaded from the Google Play store. As a father, I wanted to do something to highlight the dangers schoolchildren face. The obvious answer would be to reduce emissions. But in India, that’s not going to happen so quickly . Do people need to continue suffering from hazardous particulate pollution or can we introduce preventive measures now. Once users download the app, they can go through the air quality data for different cities as provided by NAQI (National Air Quality Index), released by the Central Pollution Control Board. Depending on the levels, the app will also list precautionary measures for children, elders and pregnant women.
For instance, at 6pm on November 14, the AQI at Mandir Marg was 393 with PM2.5 as the lead pollutant. The precautions were–children, pregnant women and elders should avoid going outdoors and the health warning read: enti re population is more likely to experience acute health effects. Long-term health effects associated with this level of exposure are very severe.
“We developed this advisory based on those issued in cities like Beijing or Singapore.Singapore, for instance, issued a detailed advisory during the smog episode,“ said Nandikesh Sivalingam of Greenpeace. The ministry of earth sciences had also launched an app called `SAFAR-Air’ which provides a forecast for the next two days and a health advisory along with a colour-coded grading of air quality for cities.
Source: TOI 15 Nov’2015
