Yareli Sanchez lives in Los Angeles and jogs regularly, but she never used to know if the day’s air quality was bad until after she had already set out for a run — her chest would tighten and it would become hard to breathe. She knew poor air quality triggered her asthma, but she didn’t have a convenient way to check the day’s pollution levels.
For the past few months, instead of using trial-and-error, she’s checked UCLA’s new AirForU app, which uses GPS data to give her local air quality ratings. The app is useful for anyone in the U.S. who sees a hazy skyline and wonders how safe it is to breathe outside air.
“I depend on the AirForU app now, and I use it every time I plan on running,” said Sanchez, who helped test it before its launch. “The app is really convenient for helping me manage my asthma and minimize my exposure to pollution.”
Yareli Sanchez lives in Los Angeles and jogs regularly, but she never used to know if the day’s air quality was bad until after she had already set out for a run — her chest would tighten and it would become hard to breathe. She knew poor air quality triggered her asthma, but she didn’t have a convenient way to check the day’s pollution levels.
For the past few months, instead of using trial-and-error, she’s checked UCLA’s new AirForU app, which uses GPS data to give her local air quality ratings. The app is useful for anyone in the U.S. who sees a hazy skyline and wonders how safe it is to breathe outside air.
“I depend on the AirForU app now, and I use it every time I plan on running,” said Sanchez, who helped test it before its launch. “The app is really convenient for helping me manage my asthma and minimize my exposure to pollution.”
The free app, released today on iPhone and Android, delivers local air-quality measurements directly to the user’s phone. It provides real-time updates every hour and a prediction for the next day. Asthmatics, families planning a trip to the playground, people who exercise outside and anyone else concerned with air quality can use the app to make decisions about where and whether to go outdoors.
“The AirForU app tells people how bad the air quality is in the places they care about, like their neighborhood, their place of work or their favorite park,” said Magali Delmas, a professor of environmental economics at UCLA and head of the team that created the app. “And when we see wildfires in the next few months, this will be a useful tool because there will be a lot of variation in the air quality from one neighborhood to another based on the location and size of the fire.”
The app draws data from monitors set up nationwide and tracked by the Environmental Protection Agency. Users can also search for air quality in specific cities or zip codes, and push notifications alert the user air pollution if becomes unhealthy for sensitive groups.
AirForU is a joint project between UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and UCLA Health. UCLA doctors plan to recommend the app to patients with heart or lung problems.
“Research has shown that, on days with poor air quality, outdoor activity puts people at higher risk of inhaling particles that cumulatively lead to increased risk of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and many other health problems,” said pediatric pulmonary asthma expert Dr. Sande Okelo, director of the Pediatric Asthma Center at Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA. “But many of our patients don’t have a convenient way to check the daily air quality. I expect the AirForU app will be very important in helping them make better decisions about exposure to pollution.”
Screenshot of app credit UCLA.
Read more at UCLA.
