UK Air Pollution Trials in Four Cities

A project is taking place in the UK using hi-tech environmental technology to monitor levels of air pollution.  The project involves a quartet of universities - although London’s Imperial College is at the forefront of it - and features a trio of portable, wireless pollution detection devices which will be put through their paces by people using multiple forms of city transport like cars, buses and bicycles.

These sensor gadgets will assess the level of traffic-associated air pollutants at locations across the UK, and feed the results back electronically.  According to scientists, measuring the air at this kind of in-depth level may yield better methods to lower pollution.

Air Pollution Sensors

Over 100 air pollution sensors will be deployed in the cities of Leicester, Cambridge, Gateshead and London, all of which will pick up traces of air pollutants including sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide – both greenhouse gases along with methane, nitrous oxide and CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons).

The project is titled ‘Message’ – an acronym of ‘Mobile Environmental Sensing System
Across Grid Environments’. 

Air Pollution Technology

Detailing Message’s air pollution technology to the BBC, project coordinator Neil Hoose explained how the sensor’s measurements would serve to provide real time updates to a central database.

“Each sensor has a satellite positioning system, so we could have a bus create a map of the air pollution as it drives along its route”, he said. “This data could be used to provide people with local information - perhaps advice for those with respiratory problems about their journey to work.

“In a wider sense, it could also be used by traffic managers, helping them decide how to phase traffic lights in a way that might reduce traffic pollution.”

Causes of Air Pollution

Of the three sensor varieties to be employed to assess the causes of air pollution, the minutest will be conversion devices (which transform air pollutants into electric impulses) carried on foot and connected directly to personal mobile phones, while larger noise and temperature pollution devices will be attached to permanent structures like lampposts.

Finally, there are highly-sophisticated devices which – attached to cars and buses – separate out the greenhouse gases they detect using UV (Ultraviolet) rays.

Overall, said Mr Hoose, the team involved in Message will “...be able to gather much finer detail about pollution, and really understand its microstructure.”