4 ms·

I am hoping by the end of the decade smartphones start having pm2.5 and co2 sensors built-in and then next decade smartwatches Once EVERYONE starts seeing air

by ck2 11mo ago

I am hoping by the end of the decade smartphones start having pm2.5 and co2 sensors built-in and then next decade smartwatches Once EVERYONE starts seeing air-quality on their phones every hour of the day everywhere they are, they will start to care and then eventually, maybe do something about the politics to improve air-quality Imagine the game-changer if air-quality was in the next iPhone They already make sensors that can go on a keyring so inside a phone is not implausible within a few years

homebrewer 11mo ago
I doubt it, maybe in rich countries where the air is already pretty good. There are enough places out there (mine included) where you can see and feel air pollution without using any sensors: limited visibility on the order of a few dozen meters, smell of burning coal and rubber tires in the air, windows blackened by soot. Everybody knows how terrible the air is, talks about it daily, and can't actually do anything about it. I've been advocating for closed windows and increased use of air purifiers and FFP3/N99 respirators, and had some limited success among people I know. People are often easily convinced once they see the state of their filter or respirator after a few days of use.
dahart 11mo ago
Yeah it’d be cool if the phones had sensors. Everyone can see local AQI already though; weather app has AQI, and you can tap on it for a local region map, as well as a table of pollutant details.
- ck2 11mo ago
  the "local AQI" is usually from a single government sensor for 100 mile radius which is useless as pollution is highly localized (think neighbor idiots burning leaves all day) also doesn't tell you indoor air quality which where you sleep REALLY matters if the co2 is sky high best third party AQI network is PurpleAIR but even with them certain cities have few or none https://map.purpleair.com/air-quality-standards-us-epa-aqi https://map.purpleair.com/air-quality-standards-us-epa-aqi airgradient barely has any in some US states https://www.airgradient.com/map/ https://www.airgradient.com/map/ US doesn't even have mandatory air-quality sensors at airports, which it should because that's where most of the other weather measurements are coming from on most apps, even if you are 30-50 miles away
  - dahart 11mo ago
    > the “local AQI” is usually from a single government sensor for 100 mile radius What’s your source on this? IPhone’s AQI report says it’s from Breezometer, which links to Google’s Enterprise AQI offerings, which claim 500m resolution and multiple sources (“over 70 local indexes”). I don’t know but would speculate that Purple Air might be one of the licensed sources. https://mapsplatform.google.com/maps-products/air-quality/ https://mapsplatform.google.com/maps-products/air-quality/
  - jerlam 11mo ago
    Even if measurement was perfect, people would have incentive to ignore it. Who wants to be told they can't do something, based on some claim that it might be bad for them in the very long term? People still smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol despite those being known to be bad for decades. Air pollution, like numerous other things like water quality and medical care, is too big to be made into a individual decision.
deadbabe 11mo ago
There’s no need really, you can already download air quality data from dedicated sensor towers.

by ck2 11mo ago

homebrewer 11mo ago

I doubt it, maybe in rich countries where the air is already pretty good. There are enough places out there (mine included) where you can see and feel air pollution without using any sensors: limited visibility on the order of a few dozen meters, smell of burning coal and rubber tires in the air, windows blackened by soot. Everybody knows how terrible the air is, talks about it daily, and can't actually do anything about it. I've been advocating for closed windows and increased use of air purifiers and FFP3/N99 respirators, and had some limited success among people I know. People are often easily convinced once they see the state of their filter or respirator after a few days of use.

dahart 11mo ago

Yeah it’d be cool if the phones had sensors. Everyone can see local AQI already though; weather app has AQI, and you can tap on it for a local region map, as well as a table of pollutant details.

ck2 11mo ago
the "local AQI" is usually from a single government sensor for 100 mile radius which is useless as pollution is highly localized (think neighbor idiots burning leaves all day) also doesn't tell you indoor air quality which where you sleep REALLY matters if the co2 is sky high best third party AQI network is PurpleAIR but even with them certain cities have few or none https://map.purpleair.com/air-quality-standards-us-epa-aqi https://map.purpleair.com/air-quality-standards-us-epa-aqi airgradient barely has any in some US states https://www.airgradient.com/map/ https://www.airgradient.com/map/ US doesn't even have mandatory air-quality sensors at airports, which it should because that's where most of the other weather measurements are coming from on most apps, even if you are 30-50 miles away
- dahart 11mo ago
  > the “local AQI” is usually from a single government sensor for 100 mile radius What’s your source on this? IPhone’s AQI report says it’s from Breezometer, which links to Google’s Enterprise AQI offerings, which claim 500m resolution and multiple sources (“over 70 local indexes”). I don’t know but would speculate that Purple Air might be one of the licensed sources. https://mapsplatform.google.com/maps-products/air-quality/ https://mapsplatform.google.com/maps-products/air-quality/
- jerlam 11mo ago
  Even if measurement was perfect, people would have incentive to ignore it. Who wants to be told they can't do something, based on some claim that it might be bad for them in the very long term? People still smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol despite those being known to be bad for decades. Air pollution, like numerous other things like water quality and medical care, is too big to be made into a individual decision.

deadbabe 11mo ago

There’s no need really, you can already download air quality data from dedicated sensor towers.