Scottish scientists use Backpacks to monitor personal air pollution

Scientists in Edinburgh are using hi-tech backpacks to study personal exposure to air pollution.

Air pollution is routinely measured by a network of urban monitors at fixed locations across Scotland.

But these are unable to provide a detailed picture of an individual's exposure throughout the day.

Scientists at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology have provided volunteers with backpacks fitted with particle monitors and GPS satellite tracking technology.

Graph on laptop, showing David’s exposure to air pollution in Edinburgh

The volunteers wear the small backpacks throughout the day and sleep with them beside their beds at night.

The results are then analysed to assess exposure to tiny particles, mainly from combustion, known as particulate matter.

Doctors say there is a strong link between exposure to particulate matter and the risk of heart attack.

Dave Newby

Professor Dave Newby, of the University of Edinburgh and the British Heart Foundation, said: "We all think that when we breathe in air pollution, it must provoke pneumonia, or asthma or lung problems. But actually, it kills far more people from heart disease.

"What we've found is that the biggest trigger is the particulate matter that we breathe in. In the urban environment, the biggest contributor to that is diesel engines."

Dr Stefan Reis

The research investigating personal exposure to air pollution is being led by Dr Stefan Reis.

He believes the development of mobile air pollution monitoring equipment will be cheaper and more effective than investing in a larger network of fixed monitoring stations to cover whole cities.

He told reporters: "It's always easy to call for more monitoring but what we are trying to achieve is getting smarter monitoring.

"We're not trying to cover the whole countryside or city with many, very accurate monitors, which are very expensive, but using the combination of personal sensors, monitors on buses or trams, together with existing networks to get a much better picture of the actual exposure of people in the city."

The Scottish government has rejected criticism from environmentalists, who say ministers are failing in their duty to reduce air pollution levels.

Paul Wheelhouse

Environment minister Paul Wheelhouse said: "Working in partnership with local authorities, we've developed a network of monitoring sites, there's over 90 of them in Scotland, and we're using those to develop our strategy at a local level.

"In some cases, where they fail to meet the Scottish standard, which is a tough standard, they identify an air quality management area and that then triggers between the Scottish government and the local authority, who have a duty to deliver good air quality locally, to tackle that."

Roadside air pollution monitoring station

But Green MSP Patrick Harvie argues air pollution levels will remain too high until there is a fundamental change in transport policy in Scotland.

He said: "This locked-in pattern that we have to high transport demand is expensive, it's inefficient, it's unhealthy and it contributes to local and global pollution.

"Unless we see change in transport policy, we are not going to see change to the pollution levels in our cities and we'll be here in another 10 years listening to another environment minister saying much the same thing."

Oppressive China's Air Pollution seriously impacting World's Weather and Health

Satellite photo shows huge air pollution clouds at far left. Japan is on the right. (Credit: JPL / NASA)

Extreme air pollution in China is impacting the world's weather and climate patterns, according to a study by Texas A&M University and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory researchers.

Yuan Wang

Yuan Wang, a former doctoral student at Texas A&M, along with Texas A&M atmospheric sciences professors Renyi Zhang and R. Saravanan, have had their findings published in the current issue of Nature Communications.

Using climate models and data collected about aerosols and meteorology over the past 30 years, the researchers found that air pollution over Asia, coming from China, is seriously impacting global air circulations.

Renyi Zhang

"The models clearly show that pollution originating from Asia has an impact on the upper atmosphere and it appears to make such storms or cyclones even stronger," Zhang explains.

"This pollution affects cloud formations, precipitation, storm intensity and other factors and eventually impacts climate."

"Most likely, pollution from Asia can have important consequences on the weather pattern here over North America."

China's booming economy during the last 30 years has led to the building of enormous manufacturing factories, industrial plants, power plants and other facilities that produce huge amounts of air pollutants.

Once emitted into the atmosphere, pollutant particles affect cloud formations and weather systems worldwide, the study shows.

Increases in coal burning and car emissions are major sources of pollution in China and other Asian countries.

Journal Reference:
Yuan Wang, Renyi Zhang, R. Saravanan. Asian pollution climatically modulates mid-latitude cyclones following hierarchical modelling and observational analysis. Nature Communications, 2014; 5 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4098

CHINA: Stench of Air Pollution Soars unabated

Residents of Beijing and many other cities in China were warned to stay inside in mid-January 2013 as the nation faced one of the worst periods of air quality in recent history.

The Chinese government ordered factories to scale back emissions, while hospitals saw spikes of more than 20 to 30 percent in patients complaining of respiratory issues, according to news reports.

At the time that this Jan. 14 image was taken by satellite, ground-based sensors at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing reported PM2.5 measurements of 291 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

Fine, airborne particulate matter (PM) that is smaller than 2.5 microns (about one thirtieth the width of a human hair) is considered dangerous because it is small enough to enter the passages of the human lungs.

Most PM2.5 aerosol particles come from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass (wood fires and agricultural burning). The World Health Organization (WHO) considers PM2.5 to be safe when it is below 25.

Also at the time of the image, the air quality index (AQI) in Beijing was 341. An AQI above 300 is considered hazardous to all humans, not just those with heart or lung ailments. AQI below 50 is considered good.

On January 12, the peak of the current air crisis, AQI was 775 the U.S Embassy Beijing Air Quality Monitor—off the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scale—and PM2.5 was 886 micrograms per cubic meter.

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Image Credit: NASA/Terra - MODIS