{"id":3745,"date":"2016-08-22T13:32:59","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T05:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/?p=3745"},"modified":"2020-07-15T11:56:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T03:56:37","slug":"is-summer-air-better-than-winter-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/blog\/is-summer-air-better-than-winter-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Summer Air Better Than Winter Air?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer is here, bringing with it clearer skies and certainly cleaner air. Right?<\/p>\n

Summer always seems to drive out the dense clouds of pollution that suffocate many Indian cities. However, while summer air is<\/em> in fact cleaner than air during other seasons, it\u2019s still far from safe according to the standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO).<\/p>\n

During the winter, cold air traps pollutants close to the ground, a process called an \u201cinversion.\u201d Summer heat prevents this inversion, which does improve the air quality. However, average air conditions in India are still clearly not ideal.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a map of today\u2019s pollution levels across India:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"pollution
Source: https:\/\/aqicn.org\/map\/india\/<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

On a day like today, when the AQI in Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi is in the ‘unhealthy’ or ‘very unhealthy’ range, we often wonder at Smart Air if the pollution in summer really is any better than the winter.<\/p>\n

We got to the bottom of it by analyzing the US Embassy’s data in New Delhi and US consulates\u2019 data in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata. So is summer air really better than winter air? We took the data from the past two years (June 2014 to June 2016) and broke it down into four seasons: winter (December to February), summer (March to June), monsoon (July to September), and post-monsoon (October to November). Next, we calculated the average particulate pollution (PM2.5) levels for each season.<\/p>\n

Across the five cities we looked at, PM2.5 levels were 26% better in the summer\u2014118 micrograms in the winter compared to 49 micrograms in the summer. That means summer air is better.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at the difference in PM2.5 between the five cities during different seasons:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"US
U.S. Department of State Data, June 2014 – June 2016. Air quality data may not be validated or verified<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

But how good is \u201cbetter?\u201d Here in India, \u201cbetter\u201d is nowhere near \u201csafe.\u201d Over the course of the two years we analyzed, average annual pollution levels in all five cities never<\/em> fell below even the WHO\u2019s more lenient (24-hour) exposure limit (25 micrograms per cubic meter). In fact, the average pollution levels across all the cities we tested was about 500% the WHO annual limit (10 micrograms) and 200% of the more lenient 24-hour limit (25)!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The lowest summer pollution level we found was Chennai (31 micrograms). But even that lowest summer level still surpassed the WHO limits.<\/p>\n

Below are the 2-year graphs for each city. You can see that each city has two distinct swells in PM2.5 levels during the winter, each followed by 2 clear dips during the summer. Interestingly enough, comparing the summer and winter levels of each city from 2014-2015 to 2015-2016 shows some cities\u2019 PM2.5 levels improving, while others\u2019 increase between years. Most notably, Chennai\u2019s winter pollution levels dropped significantly between years as did Hyderabad\u2019s, while New Delhi and Kolkata experienced clear increases. However, we\u2019re not sure whether or not this improvement and worsening of PM2.5 levels can be attributed to cities\u2019 environmental efforts (or lack thereof).<\/p>\n

The conclusion? The evidence is quite clear: summer air is in fact better than winter air. However, despite all the blue skies and warm days we’ve been having lately, there’s still a need to protect yourself inside and outside the house. Don\u2019t mistake \u201cbetter\u201d for \u201csafe.\u201d Neither summer nor winter air meets WHO health standards and summer air is still of significant concern to public health.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Chennai
U.S. State Department Data – June 2014 to June 2016. Data may not be fully verified or validated.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"US
U.S. State Department Data – June 2014 to June 2016. Data may not be fully verified or validated.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"US
U.S. State Department Data – June 2014 to June 2016. Data may not be fully verified or validated.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"US
U.S. State Department Data – June 2014 to June 2016. Data may not be fully verified or validated.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"US
U.S. State Department Data – June 2014 to June 2016. Data may not be fully verified or validated.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summer is here, bringing with it clearer skies and certainly cleaner air. Right? Summer always seems to drive out the dense clouds of pollution that suffocate many Indian cities. However, while summer air is in fact cleaner than air during other seasons, it\u2019s still far from safe according to the … <\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":331,"featured_media":3753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,261],"tags":[176,178,175,174,177],"class_list":["post-3745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air-pollution","category-weather","tag-monsoon","tag-summer","tag-us-department-of-state","tag-us-embassy","tag-winter","resize-featured-image"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3745"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11487,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3745\/revisions\/11487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartairfilters.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}