Tuesday, April 7, 2015

How Can Smart Phones Measure Exposure to Air Pollution?

Using Personal Sensors to Assess the Exposome and Acute Health Effects (15 page pdf, Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen, David Donaire-Gonzalez, Maria Foraster, David Martinez and Andres Cisneros, Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, Aug. 6, 2014)

Also discussed here: Variability in and Agreement between Modelled and Personal Continuously Measured Black Carbon Levels Using Novel Smartphone and Sensor Technologies ( Abstract, Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen, David Donaire-Gonzalez, Ioar Rivas , Montserrat de Castro, Marta Cirach, Gerard Hoek, Edmund Seto, Michael Jerrett, Jordi Sunyer, Environ Sci Technol, Jan. 26, 2015)

And here: Researchers detect students are exposed to high levels of air pollution during trips to school (Press Release, CREAL, Jan. 29, 2015)

 Today we review research into the personal exposure of students during the day to air pollution, using a smart-phone and various sensors stashed away in a backpack carried by the students. Results indicates that pollution levels on the way to school were twice as high as at home largely because of the closer proximity to vehicle emissions.

  cell phone aq    

Key Quotes:

“found that levels of air pollution were more than twice as high during the journeys to school (2.8 microgram/m3) than at home (1.3 microgram/m3) and the levels at school were slightly higher than at home (1.3 microgram/m3) in the city of Barcelona

“we found considerable variation in the black carbon levels during the day with the highest levels measured during commuting periods (Geometric mean=2.8 ug/m3) and the lowest levels at home (Geometric mean=1.3 ug/m3)”  

"for the first time we used novel smartphone apps (now only used for research but in future can be downloaded for everyone) and sensor technology to measure positioning, physical activity and air pollution simultaneously in children and the results show that air pollution levels are quite variable during the day".

"when children are closer to cars during journeys to school their air pollution levels increase significantly. Also when they are at school during the day their air pollutions are higher than at home, probably because there are more cars around during the day."

"smartphone and sensor technology is developing rapidly and it becomes now easier for people to carry with them a range of sensors to measure their environment and health parameters. This could be used for disease prevention. People can see where there are hotspots of air pollution and avoid them if they want."

No comments:

Post a Comment