In March a flock of ten trained pigeons wearing air quality ‘backpacks’ took flight across London to launch a novel air pollution monitoring campaign.
The backpacks detected nitrogen dioxide and ozone, two main gases that make urban air pollution so toxic. As Inside Climate News reported, members of the public could track the pigeons and get updated pollution readings by tweeting @PigeonAir.
While the Pigeon Patrol was mostly a publicity stunt to raise awareness about the health impacts of air pollution, it also launched an innovative project – ‘Air Patrol’ – that is using human health wearables in new ways.
Air Patrol is calling on Londoners to “fly with the flock” and wear their own pollution sensors to create the first human-powered air quality monitoring network. Starting in June, volunteers will clip a small monitor to their backpack or clothing as they move around the city. Real-time air quality results will be displayed on an app by Plume Labs and researchers at Imperial College will monitor the experiment.
The monitors for Pigeon Patrol and Air Patrol were developed in collaboration with DigitasLBi, a marketing and technology company and Plume Lab’s creative partner on the project. They expect the human wearables to be ultra-light and cost roughly $150.
The wearable will measure common pollutants that impact health, including NO2 (from diesel and traffic), O3 (a photochemical transformation of urban pollutants) and Volatile Organic Compounds (indoor pollutants from household chemicals). Future sensors could measure other pollutants like carbon dioxide, methane and benzene.
Air Patrol is more than just a cool project that started with pigeons – it has the potential to change the way we monitor a major environmental risk to health. Air pollution in cities is a leading cause of chronic and acute respiratory disease as well as stroke, heart disease, and lung cancer. According to the World Health Organization, outdoor air pollution caused an estimated 3.7 million premature deaths worldwide in 2012.
Current air monitoring typically relies on fixed stations in cities outside, which ignores air pollution indoors where people spend most of their time. Wearable monitors have the potential to disrupt this paradigm, providing a more accurate and dynamic reading of air pollution for users and the wider public.