When Delhi’s air pollution spikes, netizens in the nation’s capital often bring up the solution of planting trees. For instance, this user on the question-answer site Quora asks “how many trees does Delhi need to combat its air pollution problem?” However, environmental research suggests that planting trees are an incredibly inefficient way to reduce Delhi’s […]
Tag: air pollution
Did Delhi’s Air Pollution Drop 25% in 2019? What The Data Says
The Delhi government and Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced Delhi’s PM2.5 air pollution was down 25% in 2016-2018 compared to 2012-2014. Yet there is doubt. Thewire.in, for one, expressed skepticism about this claim. As data-driven nerds, we wanted to let the numbers answer this question. So we dug into the Delhi PM2.5 data […]
How effective are kid’s masks at filtering air pollution?
As cities like Delhi, Beijing and Manila face toxic levels of air pollution, people are rushing to find effective pollution masks, particularly kid’s masks. But there’s a problem. Children’s faces are different from adults’. Add to that, children are constantly growing, meaning that the mask that fit last year might not fit this year. Kid’s […]
How many trees need to be planted to help to solve China’s air pollution?
Planting trees to solve China’s air pollution would be a very ineffective way. Let me break down the effect of trees into (1) sucking up particulate and (2) giving particles a place to land. 1. How Much Particulate Air Pollution Do Trees Suck Up? Let’s talk about the most commonly talked about pollutant: particulate pollution […]
Can air purifiers kill dust mites?
Dust mites look scary. And apparently they’re probably in my home, since they’re in most people’s homes. A survey found dust mites in 84% of US beds and 68% of European beds. Yet it’s hard to know for sure whether they’re in our homes or not because they’re mostly too small to see […]
How’s the Air Quality in Tangshan?
There are reasons to be pessimistic about the air quality in Tangshan. Tangshan is a largely industrial city in Hebei province, which is the industrial heartland of China and one of the most polluted provinces. Tangshan also boasts one of China’s top 10 busiest ports. To get some hard data on this question, […]
Did Bangalore’s Air Quality Get Better in 2018?
Analyzing air quality data from the Berkeley Earth Project, Smart Air found that Bangalore’s air quality worsened by 7% in 2018 compared to 2017. This puts Bangalore at about 4 times the World Health Organization’s annual limit. Bangalore Air Pollution by Month Breaking down the data by month reveals exactly when air pollution was […]
Is Beijing or Delhi air worse?
Beijing and Delhi often make headlines for air polluted cities, but which city has worse air? I wanted to get some hard numbers on how the two cities’ air quality compare. The Data To do that, I analyzed PM2.5 data from the US Embassies in Delhi and government monitors in Beijing from 2015 to […]
Smart Air Provides Clean Air to Automobile Giant Ford
Right after moving to their new office in the Chimes building in Gurgaon, Ford India was experiencing problems with outdoor particulate pollution (PM2.5) and chemicals (VOCs) off-gassing from new furniture, carpets, paints, and other remodeling work. To tackle these problems and protect the health of their staff, Ford India reached out to Smart Air in […]
Is China to blame for Seoul’s air pollution?
Air pollution is a serious problem in Seoul, which South Koreans have often blamed China for. Is that fact or a convenient scapegoat? After all, Seoul is a densely populated, developed city that depends on coal power plants. South Korea certainly has its own sources of pollution. To get to the bottom of it, I […]
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