Blueair Partners With Breathe on Twitter. Get live air quality updates with just a tweet!

India: Blueair, a world leader in indoor air cleaning technologies, has partnered with Live Data Visualisation and data journalism initiative, IndiaSpend to support #Breathe, a real-time air quality monitoring public service on Twitter.

The #Breathe service runs on India’s first, low cost network of air quality sensors.

The service aims not only to increase public awareness about rising levels of air pollution and its adverse health effects, but also to give free live air pollution data to everyone.

Mr. Girish Bapat, Blueair Director, South and West Asia said “People frequently discuss rising pollution levels, but they do not a have quick and easy way to get live updates of air quality in their neighbourhood or a town they are about to visit. Thanks to this initiative, Blueair is providing vital health information with a simple tweet that allows people to make better lifestyle decisions”, By tweeting #Breathe, people can monitor the air quality they breathe across 17 cities using 75 monitoring stations. Over the next year, the service will add 10 more cities.

‘#Breathe leverages simple technology to inform citizens about the environment around them and encourages them to use data that will eventually enable better decisions in framing policies.’ said Govindraj Ethiraj, founder of IndiaSpend. ‘With #Breathe, India Spend is democratizing access to real time information and empowering Indians with knowledge to help them make healthier living decisions.’

The #Breathe initiative will help people to protect their health and plan their day accordingly. In addition, the service can help them make the right choices when it comes to lifestyle decisions such as identifying the best locations for their children’s education, the best place to buy or rent an apartment, the best time to leave their vicinity, the right time to go jogging – or to better understand why air quality is consistently bad in one particular urban area.

“The initiative not only helps us to get a better picture of the rising air pollution levels in our cities but also inspires us to find better ways to curb it,” said Blueair’s Girish Bapat.

How does it work?

Tweet #Breathe followed by the name of your area, such as Delhi or PatelNagar, for example, and you will near instantly be sent a notification about the pollution level in the form of an infographic card - comprising air quality levels , air quality index, reading of PM2.5 and PM10, along with the possible impact this air quality will have on health.

For instance, tweet #Breathe Delhi

Background Information

o According to World Health Organization report released this year, half of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in India. Among Indian cities, the top spot is taken by Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, with a mean annual PM2.5 level of 176 mg/m3. Followed by Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh at 170 mg/m3, Patna in Bihar at 149, Raipur in Chhattisgarh at 144, Delhi at 122, Ludhiana in Punjab at 122, Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh at 115, Khanna in Punjab at 114, Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh at 113 and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh at 113.

o A study by Pune based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) reveals that inhaling minute airborne pollutants reduces the life expectancy of Indians by an average of 3.4 years. Delhiites are witnessing a decrease in their lifespan by 6.3 years - the highest among all states.

o Blueair has recently committed to positively impact the lives of schoolchildren in India through a ‘Clean Air for Everyone’ program. The nationwide program, launched in the presence of Mr. Nitin Gadkari - Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, started with the immediate donation of 200 Blueair air purifiers that will benefit the lives of 10,000 students in schools across Delhi.