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Citizen scientists army to help check air quality

Peter Davison
Local Democracy Reporting Service
Getty Images A domestic wood burner alight with the door open.Getty Images
Sources of PM2.5 pollution include vehicle exhausts and domestic wood burners

A council is recruiting what it describes as an army "citizen scientists" to monitor local air quality.

The newly formed Wiltshire Community Air Network is due to launch with 100 air quality sensors, which will be installed in air pollution hotspots around the county.

The sensors measure PM2.5 air pollution, small particles in the air that can increase the risk of health problems and be damaging to the environment.

Members of the public and organisations including schools and hospitals will be asked to mount a sensor outside their home or building.

The project is Wiltshire Council's first step in gathering evidence on local PM2.5 concentrations.

The sensors, which are about the size of a mobile phone, need to be plugged into mains power and have access to a stable internet connection.

The council will be allocating sensors to each of the 18 community areas of Wiltshire based on the size of the population, prioritising applications from schools, NHS buildings, and supported housing facilities.

The data from the sensors will be publicly available online, so that people can see air pollution levels across Wiltshire in real time.

A road with cars and trucks driving along it with hedges to the right and a house further up the hill in the background.
Barn Street in Marlborough is one of the roads that currently experiences high levels of pollutants

Gary Tomsett, environmental control and protection team manager at Wiltshire Council said that the new project was a necessary step forward: "Existing monitoring indicates that the air quality in Wiltshire is predominantly very good.

"However, there are a small number of locations where the combination of traffic, road layout, and physical features of an area result in pollutants being trapped so that concentrations increase to unacceptable levels," he said.

Heavily polluted routes include London Road in Salisbury, Warminster Road in Westbury, Wadworth Corner in Devizes and Mason's Lane in Bradford on Avon.

The council currently has professional-grade air quality monitoring stations in Salisbury, Bradford-on-Avon, Marlborough, and Devizes, but the equipment is expensive, costing tens of thousands of pounds to purchase and maintain.

What is PM2.5 and Why does it matter?

  • PM2.5 pollution is defined as small particles in the air that can increase the risk of health problems and be damaging to the environment.
  • The most common sources of PM2.5 particulates are vehicle emissions, industrial discharges, and biomass burning – including domestic wood burners.
  • The tiny particulates can get into the human bloodstream through the lungs, and are responsible for an estimated 29,000 deaths in the UK every year.
  • PM2.5 is not currently part of the UK Government's Local Air Quality Management framework, so local authorities are not required to monitor and report PM2.5 levels.

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