What is the current air quality in Chapala? I don’t know. And neither does Chapala. The local government does not keep air sensor data, according to people who keep air sensor data.
So if we wish to know what we are breathing besides what the World Health Organization considers just plain air, it is recommended that we check on it ourselves. If you go out to breathe in the wonderful smell of honeysuckle and it smells like old raincoats, WHO advises wearing a mask, and in several places within Chapala, a World War I gas mask.
The “PM2.5 concentration” in Chapala is currently almost three times worse than what WHO says it should be for good air quality. You’re thinking, OK, but what is the PM2.5 concentration a concentration of? WHO claims PM2.5 concentration refers to the “amount of fine particulate matter in the air that has a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers” (“microns” as we math specialists say). That would be all the stuff in the air we can’t see, including roach poison, foot deodorant, burnt tire fumes, hair spray, flying dump truck cement and debris left over from the formation of our planet. It is most virulent when exercising along the Carretera, where your lungs are vacuuming toxic pollution from the air with every sprint and bike ride.
This must be what “IQAir” quality specialists meant when they advised that we “Check on our air quality and contribute data ourselves.” If you report that you are suddenly coughing up stucco, you are doing your duty.
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