Every once in a while, an urge to build something sweeps over my day to day. This project, Airdeets, is the latest incumbent in line of "started" side projects. Sadly, most previous side projects have been left unpublished and forgotten. My hope with Airdeets is that, by publishing this to a website, I am more invested in and accountable for maintaining this little corner of the internet.
Airdeets was partly born out of my concern for the clockwork summer wildfires that ravage the west coast. During this time, ashes rained down from the skies, cities were blanketed with a deathly fog, and walking outside meant enduring with watery eyes and a stinging throat. And those are just the short term consequences.
As it turns out, wildfires spew particulate matter in to the air en masse. There are several categories of particulate matter, pm1.0, pm2.5, and pm10, each corresponding to a different category of particle sizes. pm2.5, from what it seems, has been studied quite extensively. It has been linked to serious long-term ailments of the heart and lungs. Exposure to pm2.5 even has a "cigarrette" equivalence. Smoking shortens your life. By that logic, does that mean pm2.5 levels impact your lifespan?
The calculator on this website is admittedly crude and is based on inference from various unrelated pieces of research. It is likely not accurate, but that is not the point. The point is to call attention to the very real consequences of polluted air and start a conversation on what we can do to weather the pollution storm.