Air quality is how clean or dirty the air around us is, like how clean or messy a room can be.
Imagine you're playing in your bedroom, and someone spills juice all over the floor. The more juice there is, the messier it gets, that’s kind of like air quality. If there are lots of tiny things floating in the air, like dust, smoke, or pollution from cars, the air becomes "messy" too.
What Makes Air Messy?
Sometimes, the air can be full of tiny particles, like when you're eating cereal and some pieces get stuck in your hair, those are like the little bits that make air messy. These particles can come from things like:
- Cars going vroom-vroom on the road
- People cooking with smoke
- Factories puffing out big clouds
How We Know Air Is Messy or Clean
There are special machines, kind of like super sniffers, that check how many tiny bits are in the air. If there are too many bits, it means the air is not so clean, just like if your room had juice all over the floor, you’d know it was messy!
Sometimes we can see the mess, like when it’s foggy or smoky outside. Other times, it's invisible, but still affects how we feel, like when we cough or have trouble breathing.
Examples
- A child coughs more on smoggy days.
- A city has a bad smell from factory smoke.
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See also
- What is Particulate matter?
- WHO: Breathe Life - How air pollution impacts your body?
- What are nitrogen oxides?
- What are air pollutants?
- Do masks cause Carbon Dioxide poisoning?