Air Quality Index: Can YOU TRUST It?

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Air Quality Index: Can YOU TRUST It?
This video is about the AQI - the Air Quality Index and we’re going to talk about
what it is and how it works, And also why it’s not 100% perfect nor a 100% accurate indicator of our individual daily air quality experiences.
The AQI is the EPA - Environmental Protection Agency's index for reporting air quality.
The EPA establishes an AQI for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act. Each of these pollutants has a national air quality standard set by the EPA to protect the public’s health. They are:
ground-level ozone
particle pollution (also known as particulate matter, including PM2.5 and PM10)
carbon monoxide
sulfur dioxide
And nitrogen dioxide
The AQI values range from 0 to 500 and the higher the AQI value - the worse the air quality is.
AQI values at or below 100 are generally thought of as satisfactory. When AQI values are above 100, the air quality is considered unhealthy: at first for certain sensitive groups of people, then for everyone as the AQI values get higher.
The AQI is divided into six categories. Each category corresponds to a different level of health concern. Each category also has a specific color. The color makes it easy for people to quickly determine whether the air quality is reaching unhealthy levels in their region.
This is from the Air Now.gov website, Green is Good and the Values are 0 to 50. Yellow is Moderate and the values are 51 to 100 and then it moves on to Orange and Red, Purple and Maroon.
The Clean Air Act of 1990, requires the EPA to review its National Ambient Air Quality Standards every five years to reflect evolving health effects information. PM2.5 stands for Particles that are 2.5 microns or less in diameter. The PM2.5 standards were lowered in 2012 and will also be lowered again towards the end of this year, 2023, as well. So we need to realize that some of what was considered good air quality 10 to 25 years ago is not considered good air quality today. The standardizations are becoming more stringent over time as research is proving more severe health issues associated with poor air quality. And we can expect that some of the air quality that is deemed to be good today will not be considered good air quality in the future, either.
Some other countries also have their own AQI ratings. Different Countries will have different Air quality standards and therefore different AQIs.
Australia’s system is also called the AQI
Canada has something called the AQHI which is the Air Quality Health Index,
China has the IAQI which is the Individual Air Quality Index,
Europe has the CAQI which is the Common Air Quality Index created in 2012 and in 2017 they added the EAQI - European Air Quality Index.
India in 2014 created the NAQI which is the National Air Quality Index
And so on…
Japan - has an AQI.
Mexico has an index called IMECA,
Singapore has the PSI - Pollutant Standards Index
South Korea has the CAI - Comprehensive Air Quality Index
The United Kingdom has the Daily Air Quality Index - DAQI
The US has the AQI - and
Vietnam has the VNAQI - Vietnam Air Quality Index created in 2019
So, again, the air quality standards in each country are different from each other.
Now, If you want to check the air quality in your area you can go to the AirNow.gov website.
you can just type in your zip code and it gets updated hourly.
Air Quality Index: Can YOU TRUST It?
Here’s GA. - I just put in my zip code and it provides me with my local AQI.
Right now it says my air quality is good. With a 39 score. And you can see here it gives a prediction for tomorrow's air quality, as well, but it is currently not available for me.
And here is something pretty cool - if you click on this button here - that says “Monitors Near me” and you can find the actual air quality monitors closest to your residence.
So there are about 5,000 active Air quality monitors all over the United States which the EPA utilizes to come up with the AQI readings. These individual monitors cost over $20,000 each and they are constantly being checked and maintained by trained staff.
So here is the Interactive Map of Air Quality and you can come over here and click on PM2.5 and it will show the locations of the actual monitors which are testing for the PM2.5 levels near your residence. - again, the PM2.5 means Particulate Matter 2.5 microns in size and smaller. Which are considered smaller particles and the smaller particles are generally considered more hazardous to us.
The closest EPA air monitor is over 10 miles from my home. And the 2 closest monitors to me are 25 miles apart from each other. This one here and this one here. They are about 25 miles away from each other.
Air Quality Index: Can YOU TRUST It?

[@AirPurificationEducation]

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[@middleway1885]

Great episode! It is strange that we don't have people who want to make the air as clean as can be. Not to mention other stuff that they spray in the air. It would be interesting what kind of chemicals are in the air at certain locations... Just looking at the sun/moon rise just over known highways/freeways the color is crazy different. It's like they don't care enough to do their assigned positions to take care of the ignorant public... But they would rather help their buddies when they are in a pinch... I was looking into getting that Chinese made device, but now I'm not... I'd like to see spectrometer readings of the air quality, but they won't do it... if the public only knew what's in the air, they would be dragging those in control to stop with the bs.

[@AirPurificationEducation]

Thank you! Yeah, it's really weird... I stepped outside of my home today and smelled some type of chemical in the air (oftentimes, in the evenings, I smell something burning like wood, but not this time)... then I drove a few miles to get a pizza and the air at that location smelled different than the air at my home, for sure. It smelled odd but not a natural odor. It is probably a combination of odors/chemicals/VOCs all together. So I guess there can be over 10K to 15K VOCs/chemicals in the air at any time and the AQI certainly doesn't take all that into consideration. Hmmm... seems a lot is going on out there... Thanks! 👍

[@MalcolmMurray43]

Would you recommend a home air quality monitor in addition to a hepa air purifier? Currently I have the Winix 5500-2 but not sure how reliable the sensor is for VOC

[@AirPurificationEducation]

Hey Malcolm, I do not think the Winix5500-2 sensor is very accurate. I have a 7-year-old Winix 5500-2 and I pay zero attention to what the monitor says as I currently believe most monitors on air purifiers are pretty inaccurate. 1) Unfortunately, I don't currently really recommend any home air quality monitors at this point in time as I think most are probably fairly inaccurate as well, and also most won't be able to provide info. on Ultrafine particles which are the most dangerous to us. + they won't be able to tell you what type of particles are in your air, either. So how beneficial are they really? 2) If you didn't see it - I did a video comparing the Dylos DC1100 vs. the Temtop monitor and with about 9 readings over 9 hours in the same hotel room... - they seemed to disagree with each other about 84% of the time... so - which one is correct? or even - are either of the units accurate? IDK. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJ6sfmyci9aFhLs&ab_channel=AirPurificationEducation 3) Also, I saw where the EPA was saying that air quality sensors from $5,000 and down were fairly inaccurate compared to the $20,000 ones they use to give us our AQI numbers.... 4) + I just talked to an air purification manufacturer last week and the guy has over 22 years of industry experience and he said something I had heard before and pretty much had suspected all along - which is, "testing for VOCs and odors is even more difficult than testing for particles and the monitors are not very accurate." 5) All that being said - It never hurt to do a mold test to make sure you don't have mold in your environment and maybe some of the radon kits/tests are accurate. So those, I think I am kinda in favor of at this point in time - although, I'd prefer people hire experts for the testing if possible. 6) So for all these reasons (and probably more) I currently would rather have people invest their money in good quality air purifiers that will make an improvement to their environments instead of buying monitoring equipment...and having no idea how accurate any of them actually are. Hope that makes sense! 👍

[@heatherphilips9227]

Let me chime in here a bit. First off, I also have a Winix 5500-2, and I can watch, "in real time" the particulates dissipate from the air. Maybe it's not that accurate, but it gives me a "ballpark" figure. I can see from 10 microns all the way down to .3 microns. It's amazing to watch how dirty the air is, when I get home, and to see it go from 1400 -.3 microns to just under 70 .3-microns after I have the Winix running for 30-40 minutes on high. The monitor I use is the HOTKREM 2.5PM monitor (not the CO2 one). Nifty little gadget, but don't rely on the temp or humidity sensor, it is not accurate. Speaking of CO2, watch out, as a closed-up room can easily surpass 1000ppm. Most CO2 monitors are grossly inaccurate, but I can recommend a couple that are nearly spot on. The SAF-Aranet-4 and INKBIRD are the two best out there. No air purifier will clean CO2. As for the VOC sensors, right now, nothing is going to be accurate. Right now, they can be off by as much as 20% (-/+). The Winix 5500-2 sniffer is fine enough for me. I usually see it change from blue to orange, when I cook or put on deodorant. If the air in your living space is clean (less than 35 count of .3 microns, and you do not smell anything or not cooking anything, and it turns red, I would be "VERY CONCERNED". It's picking something up, and you may want to investigate further. Lastly, very few air purifiers are going to clean 100% of the air. As the filter(s) becomes more clogged over time, "some" dust (very fine airborne particulates) will find their way around the filter's edges. To me, this is to be expected to some degree with "all" consumer grade units. You are not going to get a 100% seal, and thus, some air particulates are going to get by at some point. The fact the air purifier is cleaning the air, and catching most of the junk floating around, is what I want. The Winix 5500-2 is one of the better units on the market (I did not say the best), that does an excellent job of cleaning the air around you.

[@AirPurificationEducation]

Hey Heather - thank you for the comments. And thanks for your 2 CO2 monitor suggestions - can you please say why you believe them to be so accurate? Thanks! 👍

[@heatherphilips9227]

@@AirPurificationEducation They have been tested against more expensive monitors. Many reviews I have read floating around the web, stated this. Also, there's a few KZbin reviewers that have also made statements about these units being within a percent or two of the more expensive CO2 monitors. I, myself, cannot confirm this, but I have the SAF-Aranet-4 (paid a pretty penny for it), and have compared it to other units I had (I returned them), and it was more accurate (or more stable reading). The Temperature & humidity sensor in these things are dead on (at least mine is). One good feature on these highly rated units is the fact you can "calibrate" them. They aren't cheap, but good insurance to keep CO2 in check... 1000ppm isn't that bad (quite common in a closed room, surprisingly), but once it gets up in the 1400ppm range, then It's best to act and open a window or find a cross breeze for a while. High CO2 levels can affect your cognitive thinking, so it's best to keep it under 1000ppm as much as possible. I do understand that this means opening a window and letting in dirty outside air, so it is a wild balance of keeping CO2 levels in check and clean indoor air as low as possible.

[@Bubuchicken]

Hi, Great video thank you. which air purifier would you recommend for air pollution? I live next to a hectic road with 3 lanes and traffic lights. I can't open my windows. I can't get the Aeris 3-in-1 in the UK. Would the IQAir HealthPro be good enough? Thank you for your time.

[@AirPurificationEducation]

Thank you - glad you liked it. The IQAir HealthPro Plus is ELITE for particle filtration (and Ultrafine particles) and I currently run it in my family room. I would say it is better than "Good Enough" - it is GREAT! Good Luck! 👍

[@Bubuchicken]

Thank you so much I really appreciate it. @@AirPurificationEducation

[@0xRick00]

I am a little hesitent to trust anything from the EPA. What are your thoughts on the AQI readings from sites like IQAir or Purple Air?

[@rayunseitig6367]

ok