Tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson urges India to clean up air pollution, poor AQI

Tech entrepreneur and health influencer Bryan Johnson’s appearance on Zerodha-owner Nikhil Kamath’s podcast has underlined India’s poor air quality index (AQI) even in rarified circles. Johnson walked off the podcast episode midway after it was found that the AQI inside the recording space was 130, with PM2.5 levels at 75 µg/m³, which he described as being similar to smoking 3.4 cigarettes over a day. 

Johnson later explained himself on February 3 saying, “When in India, I did end this podcast early due to the bad air quality. Nikhil Kamath was a gracious host and we were having a great time. The problem was that the room we were in circulated outside air which made the air purifier I’d brought with me ineffective.” 

The multi-millionaire who runs an anti-ageing campaign called, “Don’t Die,” has since encouraged Indians since the podcast episode aired to “organise and take action.” 

Johnson said the levels of air pollution in India had become so normalised that people didn’t even notice anymore. 

“No one wore a mask which can significantly decrease exposure. It was so confusing. The evidence shows that India would improve the health of its population more by cleaning up air quality than by curing all cancers,” he said. 

The air quality, he added, was bad enough to be declared as a national health emergency. “I don’t know what interests, money and power keep things the way they are but it’s really bad for the entire country,” he tweeted. 

For Johnson however, the effects were drastic. 

“This was my third day in India and the air pollution had made my skin break out in rash and my eyes and throat burn,” he noted.

Experts suggest 50 as the normal AQI for a human body with an AQI reading between 50 and 100 being adverse for infants, elderly people and asthma patients. An AQI of beyond 100 is poor for people with health or lung diseases, older age groups and children. These levels can even cause irritation, coughing, and wheezing in healthy people.

Users in India can check their local AQI levels with the help of Google Maps.