Do You Know 18,000 People Will Die Tomorrow? (But It Won’t Be On The News)

It’s breathless, but you should also hold your breath.

That’s true. 18,000 people died yesterday. That many more will die today and tomorrow as well. But don’t expect it to make the evening news!

If you are anything like me, you take plenty of breaths everyday. But did you know that in many parts of the world the air we breathe is literally killing us?

You wouldn’t know it unless you live in a place where the air quality is toxic. Invisible killers don’t often make the news, do they? Invisible slow killers that chip away at you every breath of every day for decades…

6,500,000 people die every year because of air pollution.

That shocking stat is from a WHO report released in July 2016.

6.5 million people a year! That’s about 18,000 every single day. The World Health Organization calls it a global health crisis. That’s more deaths than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and traffic accidents combined!

God Save The Queen — though she probably has an air purifier in her palace

London

In London, 10,000 people die every year because of air pollution. Can you believe that? London is not what comes to mind when you think of air pollution, right? You think of Beijing, Delhi and other countries in this part of the world. But not London. Yet the NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide) levels in London’s air are often at unhealthy levels.

Earlier this month, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, called London’s air “filthy” and said “cleaning up London’s toxic air is now an issue of life and death.”

Smokey the air pollution chatbot with London’s air quality. It’s unhealthy!

Air pollution is a global crisis that’s affecting a much larger part of the world. 1 in 8 of all deaths in the world are caused by air pollution.

Do you know the air quality in your city right now?

How come there are hundreds of apps that can accurately tell you the weather outside but hardly any that seamlessly let you know whether the air outside is healthy or not?

Shouldn’t there be a way to find out whether you really should wear a face mask before stepping out, or whether you should avoid going out altogether? This isn’t hyperbole. When air quality gets bad enough you should stay indoors (preferably with an air purifier)!

Why don’t these 18,000 deaths every single day make the evening news with the dramatic flair of any other “breaking news” story?

Today I want to help you figure out the air pollution in your city.

Let me introduce you to Smokey…

Smokey is a chatbot on the Facebook Messenger platform that puts the world’s realtime air pollution data at your fingertips.

Just like you message your friends on Messenger, you can now talk to Smokey too. Did you know that over One Billion people use the Facebook Messenger platform every month now? That’s amazing.

Now thanks to Smokey every single one of those one billion people can find out the worldwide air pollution levels without having to download a single app or piece of software.

Smokey works everywhere. He is on Mac, PC, Linux, Android, iPhone and even Blackberry. As long as you have the Facebook Messenger app installed, you have access to real-time easy to understand air quality data now.

Let’s try it out.

Let’s check the air quality levels in New Delhi, Beijing and Bangkok:

Smokey in action. Delhi, Beijing and Bangkok’s real-time air pollution reports. — **Smokey in action.** Delhi, Beijing and Bangkok’s real-time air pollution reports.

Pretty cool, eh?

I can hear you say “OMG Smokey, the air quality in my city is unhealthy. What should I do about it?” or “Wait a second, Smokey doesn’t have data for my city!” Hang tight. Smokey 2.0 is just around the corner and it will blow your socks off.

You can chat with Smokey today at http://m.me/smokeybot and visit http://smokey.me/ for more details.

Smokey is 100% free, though donations are welcome to keep it going. You can tip the bitcoin jar here: 14VTYF7aG3y4txPJP3rvo5YRxTUDQVX3Uq.