10 ms·
Show HN: My city makes me smoke 40 cigarettes per day
My city is dying and no one cares.
I live in Delhi and it recently hit AQI 1000 - equivalent to smoking 40+ cigarettes daily. Yet people around me still believe you can "build immunity" to air pollution.
Frustrated by this dangerous misconception, I built an open-source tool that translates abstract AQI numbers into metrics people viscerally understand: cigarettes you're unknowingly "smoking" and hours of life lost each day.
Features:
- Real-time conversion of AQI to cigarette equivalents
- Daily life expectancy impact calculation
- Location-based tracking
Live demo: https://air.nmn.gl/ https://air.nmn.gl/
GitHub: https://github.com/namanyayg/air/ https://github.com/namanyayg/air/
Looking for feedback to make the health impact even more compelling & additional metrics that could drive awareness
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ilrwbwrkhv 2y agoWow those are insane numbers and so sad. Are the local governments not doing anything to help?
- namanyayg 2y agoThere are some active initiatives like truck mounted water sprinklers [0], banning non-essential goods vehicles [1], and talks of cloud seeding [2]. But I don't think any of those are actually effective, they are just ways to distract. Barely anything is done to stop the root cause. [0] https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/truck-mount-water-sprinklers-to-aid-delhis-air-pollution-woes20241121145731/ https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/truck-moun... [1] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/science/what-is-cloud-seeding-a-proposed-solution-to-delhis-severe-air-pollution-crisis/articleshow/115475761.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/science/what-is-cloud-se... [2] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/air-pollution-grap-4-measures-to-continue-in-delhi-ncr-till-next-hearing-on-december-2-says-supreme-court/articleshow/115768467.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/air-pollution-grap...
- ilrwbwrkhv 2y agoWhat's the root cause?
- namanyayg 2y agoStubble burning in neighbouring states and countries is one of the big ones Secondarily it's vehicular and industry emissions. There are MANY factories in Delhi and they all expel their industrial wastes into both the air and water of the city.
- profsummergig 2y ago> AQI 1000 - equivalent to smoking 40+ cigarettes daily Request someone to please provide a reliable source for this.
- Arnt 2y agoI've also heard 50. If either number sounds unbelievably high, well, the air in Delhi in the winter is unbelievably bad and who cares about the details. I feel very sorry for the people who can't move away.
- namanyayg 2y agoSource: https://berkeleyearth.org/air-pollution-and-cigarette-equivalence/ https://berkeleyearth.org/air-pollution-and-cigarette-equiva...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- aziaziazi 2y agoVisiting with safari or Firefox load the page for some seconds then show me an error "Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information)." iPhone SE / iOS 15.8.3
- namanyayg 2y agoThanks for pointing that out, it seems to work on Firefox on Android. I'll check it out on iPhone and fix this asap.
- dakhaliwalla 2y ago[flagged]
- namanyayg 2y agoFair point, I'll remove that section. I added it because I wanted people to have some symptomatic relief at least. Different types of air pollutants exist, and Delhi's smog is especially fatal.
- glonq 2y agoGood job on reporting on the problem, but you might want to cut the "Practical Wisdom" section because it is quite dubious. I grew up in a northern Canadian city where fireplaces and heating oil was common, and when a cold weather inversion hit the streets were choked with smoke and we were told that it was the same as smoking N cigarettes per day.