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Comment by derwiki | Hacker News Reader

I’ve been using an app that converts AQI to equivalent cigarettes smoked per day. It’s not perfect but it’s something I can wrap my head around as a meaningfully bad number.

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These apps really put this into perspective for someone who used to smoke a pack a day 15 years ago :) So I guess spending all day outdoors is not THAT bad?

Here's one such app, for people that are interested: https://shootismoke.app

It's currently giving me 2.3 cigarettes per day, and I live a decent distance away from any of the fires (Sacramento, CA).

Why in the world would this be a native app and not a web page?

Data collection, of course.

Or maybe the developer only knows mobile engineering? Not everything has to be seen from an uncharitable angle.

iOS encourages developers to make apps for their services because Safari's features and compatibility lag behind other browsers, and it doesn't implement PWA functionality.

And one of these "features" is arithmetic and displaying a number?

And what a strange name. Why is “shoot” treated like an expletive? I’m actually not even sure I’m parsing the name correctly.

Shoot! is a common substitute for other, more abrasive expletives (Shit! Fuck!). I'd much rather have the former in a business/service name!

Interestingly, the Android package name is indeed com.shitismoke.app

Right, but the point of using it is not to have to blank it out in form like this brand does. It would be like putting heck as hk.

The latest update it is giving me is 5 months ago (I'm in San Diego, CA), that seems hardly relevant.

I'd really rather not download a whole app for this so my apologies if this answer is readily available in the app, but...

I keep seeing these kinds of conversions (AQI to equivalent cigarettes per day) but I never see numbers on how long you need to be outside for that to be the case. Is it based on assuming someone on the coast (where AC is rare) having to keep their windows open all day? Is it based on 1-2 trips outside per day? How does it incorporate exposure time into the conversion rate?

I presumed it was 24h of outdoor exposure (aka camping), and based on the founder's response on ProductHunt[0] that seems to be the case.

[0] https://www.producthunt.com/posts/sh-t-i-smoke

What sort of numbers are you seeing?

Yesterday it said 6 cigarettes in East Bay for AQI ~175

And you don't even get the nicotine kick.

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