Ambient air- How much safe or unsafe for breathing

Abstract

Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health. The air pollution may lead to stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and respiratory diseases like asthma. There is need of lowering of the long term and short term air pollution to prevent our fellow citizens from cardiovascular and respiratory health. The World Health Organization, Air Quality Guidelines provide an assessment of health effects of air pollution and thresholds for health-harmful pollution levels. In addition to outdoor air pollution, indoor smoke is a serious health risk for some 3 billion people who cook and heat their homes with biomass, kerosene fuels and coal. Air Quality Index (AQI) is a tool used for air quality status. It covers the complex air quality data of various pollutants into a single number and colour. AQI has six categories of air quality. These are: Good, Satisfactory, Moderately Polluted, Poor, Very Poor and Severe. Each of these categories is decided based on ambient concentration values of air pollutants and their likely health impacts. As the AQI increases, an increasingly large percentage of the population is likely to experience health effects. The present review paper is reviewing the latest AQI and correlating the possible solutions to minimize air pollution. Herbal Plantations for the pure air is the best solution to be incorporated by all civic bodies of cities in India. It will give benefits to the Indians of more lives with pure air.