Today’s Travel Tip: Don’t take good air quality for granted.
My current approach to traveling hasn’t allowed much time to think about the next destination, as I have tried to soak up as much as possible where I am actually living. This led me to land in Hanoi, Vietnam, rather unprepared for the air that hit me. An app that I quickly befriended is called AirVisual. Here are a few notes about my experience with it.
Back in November 2018, I was living in Oakland, California – within the greater San Francisco Bay Area. A devastating fire broke out and raged in the woodlands about 165 miles away – about a 3 hour drive. Due to the size and extended duration of the fire, and the prevailing winds, A LOT of smoke made its way into the Bay – and just sat there, and accumulated, for days. Schools were closed, offices were closed, and fairly soon, everyone was encouraged to stay indoors to minimize exposure to breathing the smoke-filled air. I remember at the peak of it, how my throat felt raw and my eyes stung, and I couldn’t imagine what it must be like for all of the people actually at the fire. The concept of measuring the air as “unhealthy for sensitive groups” was new to me then. And I avidly followed the daily stats on my weather app, to see the quality get worse (higher numbers) and then eventually better (lower numbers.) But somehow, I forgot about all of that, until I got to Hanoi 14 months later.
I haven’t explored the sources or reasons for the pollution in Hanoi, but it is clearly a normal part of everyday life. Most people wear masks while on their motorbikes, when it seems to have the greatest impact, but otherwise, perhaps they are used to the rawness and stinging in their throats and eyes? I though, felt just like I did during the fire. My throat was protesting and asking what was going on?
I downloaded the AirVisual app whose logo is a head with a face mask on it. And I quickly saw in the data that Hanoi, Vietnam is regularly in the top 10 cities in the world for poor air quality. On any given day, the measurements could rise and fall through “moderate” (a cautious yellow), to “unhealthy for sensitive groups” (a notable orange), to “unhealthy” (a dramatic red). During the Camp Fire, the Bay got into the “very unhealthy” (an alarming purple in the app) category, and this is also a regular occurrence in Hanoi.
At least with the app I had an understanding of what was happening, even though I couldn’t “see” the issue, other than some haziness in most of my photos. Awesomely within our group, someone found a source for ‘dust masks’. Then I had the challenge of getting used to wearing it, and having the almost hourly internal debate on whether it was helping in the current conditions, or if orange was ‘okay-enough’ to take a break from the awkwardness of the mask, and the pressure I felt to be overly expressive with my eyes and eyebrows.
The human body remain mysterious, as the impacts ranged widely within just our group, from those who were really irritated to those who didn’t seem to notice. (Often, the stats were very similar to rush hour stats in Los Angeles?) So perhaps you fall in the latter, while I imagine I am closer to the former.
Since getting the AirVisual app, I have used it to explore things like the current rankings of major cities, the annual rankings, and the stats in the places I’ve lived – which all seem to regularly be in a “good” (a lovely green) zone. I became more familiar with air pollution globally, and in some cases its seasonality. I also became more familiar with what might lie ahead for city versus countryside adventures in Thailand and Malaysia.
Had I focused on this issue before leaving, I still doubt that I would have purchased a high quality pollution mask and carried it around during the first four countries of the trip. Now though, I will take air quality into consideration as I research, schedule, plan, and pack for future travels.
I hope you are currently “in the green” and can take a nice deep breath!