On this article, you will find a brief explanation of air quality and which API is the best API to boost your project.
A Briefing on Air Quality
By and large, the air we breathe contains significant amounts of pollutants that are hazardous to our health. The presence of water vapor, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and other trace gases is known as air quality. Air pollution is characterized by the presence of harmful gases and particles in high concentrations that may cause disease and deaths. In summary, air pollution is the contamination of the atmosphere by gaseous contaminants. Although we can’t perceive it without scientific instruments, human health is threatened by it.
Air quality is defined as the mixture of all the gaseous and particulate pollutants present in the atmosphere at a given time in a particular location. Its measurements are closely related to human health. For example, air pollutants can affect our breathing, cause respiratory illnesses such as asthma, and increase our risk of developing cancer.
Allergies, particularly those related to air pollution, have become increasingly prevalent over recent years. Children with asthma are more likely to develop allergies than children without asthma. Air pollution also has other effects on our health such as heart attacks, strokes, lung diseases (like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), and death.
Various kinds of pollutants can be present in the atmosphere.
Particulate matter: These are small solid materials or liquid droplets (aerosols) suspended in the air. Some examples include dust, ash particles from fires or volcanic eruptions, pollen grains, smoke or soot from burning fossil fuels (like wood or coal), sulfates produced by industry or vehicle exhausts, and metallic or nonmetallic particles from mining operations or wind-blown soil or sand. They may be suspended in the air for days or even weeks before falling back to earth. They can cause lung cancer after long-term exposure to fine particulate matter in the air causes inflammation in lung tissue which causes lung cells to produce more mucus than normal, which may plug small airways in the lungs. They can also result in heart attacks after inhalation leads to artery wall thickening.Sulfur dioxide (SO2): It is a colorless gas that is emitted by volcanoes and industrial processes involving sulfur-containing fuels such as coal and oil. SO2 mixes with water vapor and sunlight to form sulfuric acid aerosols that can be inhaled deep into our lungs and trigger asthma attacks
This API will retrieve the current, historical, and forecasted Air Quality Index of any location in the world.
To make use of it, you must first:
1- Go to Air Quality Index API and simply click on the button “Subscribe for free” to start using the API.
2- After signing up in Zyla API Hub, you’ll be given your personal API key. Using this one-of-a-kind combination of numbers and letters, you’ll be able to use, connect, and manage APIs!
3- Employ the different API endpoints depending on what you are looking for.
4- Once you meet your needed endpoint, make the API call by pressing the button “run” and see the results on your screen.