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About this tool
Enter today's AQI to get an outdoor training verdict, the PM2.5 you would inhale and a safer session length.
The AQI Exercise Safety Advisor turns an air quality index reading into an outdoor training decision. It inverts the official AQI formula to recover the underlying PM2.5 concentration — using the US EPA breakpoints revised in 2024 or the India CPCB National AQI sub-index — then multiplies that by the EPA Exposure Factors Handbook inhalation rate for your session intensity to estimate the micrograms of fine particulate you would actually breathe in. The verdict follows the EPA Air Quality Guide for Particle Pollution, which is written around prolonged or heavy exertion.
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US EPA and India CPCB breakpoints, so the number in your app is read correctly.
Shows the micrograms of PM2.5 a session draws in, because breathing rate rises up to twelvefold with effort.
Verdicts follow the EPA particle pollution activity guidance for sensitive groups and the general public.
On the US EPA scale, sensitive groups are advised to reduce prolonged or heavy exertion from AQI 101 and to move activities indoors from 151; everyone is advised to avoid outdoor physical activity at 301 and above. On the India CPCB scale the equivalent turning points are Moderate (101–200) for sensitive people and Very Poor (301–400) for everyone.
Because inhaled dose is concentration multiplied by breathing rate multiplied by time. EPA short-term inhalation rates for adults run from about 0.0042 m³/min at rest to 0.049 m³/min at high intensity — roughly twelvefold — and hard breathing also shifts air from the nose, which filters particles, to the mouth, which does not.
Under the 2024 US EPA breakpoints, AQI 50 is 9.0 µg/m³, AQI 100 is 35.4, AQI 150 is 55.4, AQI 200 is 125.4 and AQI 300 is 225.4 as a 24-hour average. India's CPCB scale is different: AQI 100 is 60 µg/m³ and AQI 200 is 90, so the same PM2.5 reading gives a lower Indian AQI than a US one.
A well-fitted N95 or FFP2 filters at least 95% of fine particles, but it increases breathing resistance and its seal breaks down with heavy sweating and jaw movement, so it is a poor fit for hard training. Moving the session indoors, shifting it away from traffic, or training earlier when concentrations are usually lower generally does more than a mask.