Air Quality Health Index: Is The Air Around You Safe?
Transcript - Air Quality Health Index: Is The Air Around You Safe?
An outdoor park scene including a girl with a pinwheel. Pinwheel turns into the AQHI scale.
Voice: The Air Quality Health Index or AQHI is a scale from 1 to 10+ that indicates health risk associated with air quality.
The higher the number, the higher the risk.
Three (3) pollutants, Nitrogen Dioxide, Fine Particulate Matter and Ozone over a scene of polluting cars and factories.
Voice: The AQHI is based on the levels of 3 pollutants, measured in many communities across Canada.
The Index shows you the sum of the health risks from each of these pollutants.
A cityscape with a pollution cloud that fades away.
Voice: Air pollution is made up of gases and particles that you cannot always see or smell.
A pyramid of air pollution related health effects builds starting with less severe effects at the bottom and ending with death at the top.
Voice: Air pollution can:
- Make it harder to breather
- Irritate your eyes, nose and throat
- Worsen chronic diseases such as heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma
- It can even lead to premature death
Images representing those at risk are on screen as the narrator lists them.
Voice: Although air quality is a concern for everyone, it's especially important for:
- People with existing lung or heart conditions
- Young children
- The Elderly, and
- Those who are active outdoors.
A split screen inside a house. An older person at a table looking at a laptop. A mom and daughter in the living room looking at a smart phone. The daughter puts on a bike helmet.
Voice: You can use the AQHI website or app to help you plan your day to stay healthy.
A close-up of the phone screen showing the AQHI app scale for Calgary.
Voice: You'll see a number beside your location that tells you what the present air quality risk is. Below that, you'll see a numbered scale representing risk level from 1 to 10+ or low to high.
Phone screen with app and Today 4, Tonight 4 and Tomorrow 3, highlighted.
Voice: The AQHI also forecasts local air quality for today, tonight tomorrow and it is updated hourly so you can plan your days.
Finger changes phone screen to show a tip that reads "Choose green energy sources".
Voice: And it provides health advice and tips on how to improve air quality.
The finger moves the scale to the number 4. A note on the phone reads "Notify me when the AQHI reaches 4".
Voice: Get to know your number! You can program the app to notify you when the AQHI is at a level where you experience symptoms.
Back to the mom and child in their house. The child picks up a pinwheel, they go outside and the pinwheel turns into the AQHI pinwheel logo.
Voice: The AQHI is a simple and convenient tool to help Canadians manage their health with confidence.
Government of Canada logo.
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