Using Low-Cost Measurement Systems to Investigate Air Quality: A Case Study in Palapye, Botswana

Exposure to particulate air pollution is a major cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. In developing countries, the combustion of solid fuels is widely used as a source of energy, and this process can produce exposure to harmful levels of particulate matter with diameters smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5). However, as countries develop, solid fuel may be replaced by centralized coal combustion, and vehicles burning diesel and gasoline may become common, changing the concentration and composition of PM2.5, which ultimately changes the population health effects. Therefore, there is a continuous need for in-situ monitoring of air pollution in developing nations, both to estimate human exposure and to monitor changes in air quality. In this study, we present measurements from a 5-week field experiment in Palapye, Botswana. We used a low-cost, highly portable instrument package to measure surface-based aerosol optical depth (AOD), real-time surface PM2.5 concentrations using a third-party optical sensor, and time-integrated PM2.5 concentration and composition by collecting PM2.5 onto Teflon filters. Furthermore, we employed other low-cost measurements of real-time black carbon and time-integrated ammonia to help interpret the observed PM2.5 composition and concentration information during the field experiment. We found that the average PM2.5 concentration (9.5 µg∙m−3) was below the World Health Organization (WHO) annual limit, and this concentration closely agrees with estimates from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report estimates for this region. Sulfate aerosol and carbonaceous aerosol, likely from coal combustion and biomass burning, respectively, were the main contributors to PM2.5 by mass (33% and 27% of total PM2.5 mass, respectively). While these observed concentrations were on average below WHO guidelines, we found that the measurement site experienced higher concentrations of aerosol during first half our measurement period (14.5 µg∙m−3), which is classified as “moderately unhealthy” according to the WHO standard.

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REAL-TIME ENVIRONMENTAL SENSORS TO IMPROVE HEALTH IN THE SENSING CITY

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprsarchives-xli-b2-729-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol XLI-B2 ◽

pp. 729-733 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

L. Marek ◽

M. Campbell ◽

M. Epton ◽

M. Storer ◽

S. Kingham

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Real Time ◽

Low Cost ◽

Monitoring Network ◽

Environmental Data ◽

Chronic Obstructive ◽

Actual Usage

The opportunity of an emerging smart city in post-disaster Christchurch has been explored as a way to improve the quality of life of people suffering Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is a progressive disease that affects respiratory function. It affects 1 in 15 New Zealanders and is the 4th largest cause of death, with significant costs to the health system. While, cigarette smoking is the leading cause of COPD, long-term exposure to other lung irritants, such as air pollution, chemical fumes, or dust can also cause and exacerbate it. Currently, we do know little what happens to the patients with COPD after they leave a doctor’s care. By learning more about patients’ movements in space and time, we can better understand the impacts of both the environment and personal mobility on the disease. This research is studying patients with COPD by using GPS-enabled smartphones, combined with the data about their spatiotemporal movements and information about their actual usage of medication in near real-time. We measure environmental data in the city, including air pollution, humidity and temperature and how this may subsequently be associated with COPD symptoms. In addition to the existing air quality monitoring network, to improve the spatial scale of our analysis, we deployed a series of low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) air quality sensors as well. The study demonstrates how health devices, smartphones and IoT sensors are becoming a part of a new health data ecosystem and how their usage could provide information about high-risk health hotspots, which, in the longer term, could lead to improvement in the quality of life for patients with COPD.

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Spatial Extent and Distribution of Ambient Airborne Particulate Matter (PM2.5) in Selected Land Use Sites in Nairobi, Kenya

Journal of Environmental and Public Health ◽

10.1155/2021/4258816 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Caroline Kiai ◽

Christopher Kanali ◽

Joseph Sang ◽

Michael Gatari

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Air Pollution ◽

Particulate Matter ◽

Air Quality ◽

Low Cost ◽

Airborne Particulate Matter ◽

Spatial Extent ◽

Airborne Particulate ◽

Concentration Levels ◽

Pm2.5 Concentration

Air pollution is one of the most important environmental and public health concerns worldwide. Urban air pollution has been increasing since the industrial revolution due to rapid industrialization, mushrooming of cities, and greater dependence on fossil fuels in urban centers. Particulate matter (PM) is considered to be one of the main aerosol pollutants that causes a significant adverse impact on human health. Low-cost air quality sensors have attracted attention recently to curb the lack of air quality data which is essential in assessing the health impacts of air pollutants and evaluating land use policies. This is mainly due to their lower cost in comparison to the conventional methods. The aim of this study was to assess the spatial extent and distribution of ambient airborne particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) in Nairobi City County. Seven sites were selected for monitoring based on the land use type: high- and low-density residential, industrial, agricultural, commercial, road transport, and forest reserve areas. Calibrated low-cost sensors and cyclone samplers were used to monitor PM2.5 concentration levels and gravimetric measurements for elemental composition of PM2.5, respectively. The sensor percentage accuracy for calibration ranged from 81.47% to 98.60%. The highest 24-hour average concentration of PM2.5 was observed in Viwandani, an industrial area (111.87 μg/m³), and the lowest concentration at Karura (21.25 μg/m³), a forested area. The results showed a daily variation in PM2.5 concentration levels with the peaks occurring in the morning and the evening due to variation in anthropogenic activities and the depth of the atmospheric boundary layer. Therefore, the study suggests that residents in different selected land use sites are exposed to varying levels of PM2.5 pollution on a regular basis, hence increasing the potential of causing long-term health effects.

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REAL-TIME ENVIRONMENTAL SENSORS TO IMPROVE HEALTH IN THE SENSING CITY

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-archives-xli-b2-729-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol XLI-B2 ◽

pp. 729-733

Author(s):

L. Marek ◽

M. Campbell ◽

M. Epton ◽

M. Storer ◽

S. Kingham

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Real Time ◽

Low Cost ◽

Monitoring Network ◽

Environmental Data ◽

Chronic Obstructive ◽

Actual Usage

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Performance of Aether Low-Cost Sensor Device for Air Pollution Measurements in Urban Environments. Accuracy Evaluation Applying the Air Quality Index (AQI)

Atmosphere ◽

10.3390/atmos12101246 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (10) ◽

pp. 1246

Author(s):

Georgios C. Spyropoulos ◽

Panagiotis T. Nastos ◽

Konstantinos P. Moustris

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Electrochemical Sensor ◽

Quality Index ◽

Low Cost ◽

Data Access ◽

Air Quality Index ◽

World Health ◽

Monitoring Systems ◽

Sensor Device

Significant portions of European cities’ population are still exposed to levels of air pollution deemed harmful by the World Health Organization. Given the high impact of air pollution both on human health and the economy, numerous low-cost electrochemical sensor monitoring systems are being installed. The market is forced to develop new air quality monitoring systems to meet the needs of providing forecasting services based on advanced technologies and protocols that utilize certain characteristics such as high accuracy, real-time monitoring, daily and yearly statistics, data access from both experts and simple users with the use of low-cost equipment. In this study, conducted in Athens, Greece, a comparison is attempted between the findings from a low-cost electrochemical sensor device and those of a static, fixed site measurement monitoring station; this comparison is based on the data quality and Air Quality Index (AQI) concerning data accuracy and quality on adverse health effects due to air pollution. With regard to the prediction of different AQI intervals, TPR ranges from 35.2% up to 100.0%, FPR from 0.0% up to 36.1% and FNR from 0.0% up to 38.1%. The outcome of this study reveals flexible and affordable alternatives adopted during the evaluation and calibration of low-cost gas sensors for monitoring.

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Key Concerns and Drivers of Low-Cost Air Quality Sensor Use

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su14010584 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 584

Author(s):

Priyanka Nadia deSouza

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Real Time ◽

Data Visualization ◽

Low Cost ◽

Pollution Monitoring ◽

Quality Information ◽

User Reviews ◽

Air Pollution Monitoring ◽

The Public

Low-cost sensors are revolutionizing air pollution monitoring by providing real-time, highly localized air quality information. The relatively low-cost nature of these devices has made them accessible to the broader public. Although there have been several fitness-of-purpose appraisals of the various sensors on the market, little is known about what drives sensor usage and how the public interpret the data from their sensors. This article attempts to answer these questions by analyzing the key themes discussed in the user reviews of low-cost sensors on Amazon. The themes and use cases identified have the potential to spur interventions to support communities of sensor users and inform the development of actionable data-visualization strategies with the measurements from such instruments, as well as drive appropriate ‘fitness-of-purpose’ appraisals of such devices.

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Performance of Low-Cost Sensors for Air Pollution Measurements in Urban Environments. Accuracy Evaluation Applying the Air Quality Index (AQI)

10.20944/preprints202106.0041.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Georgios C. Spyropoulos ◽

Panagiotis T. Nastos ◽

Konstantinos P. Moustris

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Quality Index ◽

Electrochemical Sensors ◽

Low Cost ◽

Data Access ◽

Air Quality Index ◽

World Health ◽

Monitoring Systems ◽

Accuracy Evaluation

Most people living in Europe's cities are still exposed to levels of air pollution deemed harmful by the World Health Organization. In the modern world, air pollution is the foremost concern because of its impact in human health and economy. This strong connection appears gaining a lot of concern, driven by new installed low-cost electrochemical sensors monitoring systems. Highly accuracy, real-time monitoring, daily and yearly statistics, data access from experts or simple users, low-cost equipment and forecasting needs, enforce the market to develop new air quality monitoring systems using advanced technologies and protocols. In this study, a comparison via low-cost electrochemical sensors and of static, fixed site measurement monitoring station, is taking place in Athens, Greece, along with the data quality and Air Quality Index (AQI) including data accuracy and quality of data concerning adverse health effects due to air pollution. The findings presented in this work, relate to different flexible and affordable alternatives adopted during the evaluation and calibration of low-cost gas sensors for the monitoring. The significance of the positive results is particularly useful, especially considering the founding for interference, environmental conditions affections and air quality information including indexes and health recommendations for a specific location.

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Green Home: New Application for Monitoring Indoor Air Quality Using Arduino Platform

Journal of Student Research ◽

10.47611/jsr.vi.929 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ameera Ali Al-Fazari ◽

Mahra Said Ahmed Al-Risi ◽

Rasha AbdulWahhab

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Real Time ◽

Web Application ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Pollution Monitoring ◽

World Health ◽

Potential Health ◽

Air Pollution Monitoring ◽

Health Organization

Air pollution is one of the most serious problems facing the atmosphere on the planet. Air pollution is defined as a collection of harmful chemicals and an organic material from factories are emitted in the atmosphere layer and causes many different diseases such as cough, eye irritation and even death. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the number of deaths per year due to pollution from gases is about 3.5 million. The main objective of this research is to develop a real time air pollution monitoring web application able to detect indoor toxic gases titled Aircom. The proposed application has a special feature in which IoT technology is embedded in one of its units. The main purpose of using such technology is to help individual to check and get real time information about air’s parameters such as Methane, Ethanol, Toluene, CO2, CO, Alcohol, Acetone, LPG, NH4, Benzene and Hexane along with the temperature, humidity and dust. Aircome will be implemented as an integrated pollution monitoring application which consist of MQ-2, MQ-3, MQ-135, MQ-9, GP2Y1010AU0F, GPS,DHT11, ESP8266 Wi-Fi, Arduino Uno board and web server. All the collected data form the suggested sensors are transmitting using Wifi technology to IoT module and in an online database. Moreover, the collected data later can be viewed using web browser which is installed in any of electronic media. The retrieved data will be displayed in the form of tables and graphs. An alert will be send by Aircom instantly in case the level of air‘s parameters reach above normal level. Generally speaking, Aircom will be developed by using different languages such as C++, Arduino, Java, Java script, PHP, html and MySQL. For further verification of our proposal, we employed a quantitative study to check if what we proposed will have positive impact among different samples in the society. The outcome of the survey indicates that using such application helps to protect individuals from the bad air quality and decreases the potential health problems.

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Development of real time internet of things (IoT) based air quality monitoring system

Indonesian Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science ◽

10.11591/ijeecs.v13.i3.pp1039-1047 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 1039 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Huzein Fahmi Hawari ◽

Aideed Ahmad Zainal ◽

Mohammad Radzi Ahmad

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Internet Of Things ◽

Real Time ◽

Low Cost ◽

Pollution Index ◽

Real Time System ◽

Effective Implementation ◽

Modern Cities ◽

Monitoring Result

The atmospheric air pollution is a major concern in modern cities, especially in developing countries like Malaysia. In this paper, we have reported an effective implementation for Internet of Things used for monitoring the level of air pollution based on Malaysia Air Pollution Index (API). The low-cost and real time system would be able to monitor regular air quality pollutants including Particulate Matter (PM) of PM2.5, PM10 and Carbon Monoxide (CO) gas as well as the temperatures and humidity of the surroundings. The system has capability to detect Good, Moderate, Unhealthy, Very Unhealthy and Hazardous API status. Based on 5 weeks of experimental API monitoring result on specified test location, the system was able to demonstrate promising results in providing a reliable real time monitoring of the air quality condition.

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Gender Differences in Association between Air Pollution and Daily Mortality in the Capital of the Green Lungs of Poland–Population-Based Study with 2,953,000 Person-Years of Follow-Up

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm9082351 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (8) ◽

pp. 2351

Author(s):

Łukasz Kuźma ◽

Krzysztof Struniawski ◽

Szymon Pogorzelski ◽

Hanna Bachórzewska-Gajewska ◽

Sławomir Dobrzycki

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Gender Differences ◽

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Air Pollutant ◽

World Health ◽

The European Union ◽

Daily Mortality ◽

Male Population ◽

The Impact

(1) Introduction: air pollution is considered to be one of the main risk factors for public health. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), air pollution contributes to the premature deaths of approximately 500,000 citizens of the European Union (EU), including almost 5000 inhabitants of Poland every year. (2) Purpose: to assess the gender differences in the impact of air pollution on the mortality in the population of the city of Bialystok—the capital of the Green Lungs of Poland. (3) Materials and Methods: based on the data from the Central Statistical Office, the number—and causes of death—of Białystok residents in the period 2008–2017 were analyzed. The study utilized the data recorded by the Provincial Inspectorate for Environmental Protection station and the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management during the analysis period. Time series regression with Poisson distribution was used in statistical analysis. (4) Results: A total of 34,005 deaths had been recorded, in which women accounted for 47.5%. The proportion of cardiovascular-related deaths was 48% (n = 16,370). An increase of SO2 concentration by 1-µg/m3 (relative risk (RR) 1.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02–1.12; p = 0.005) and a 10 °C decrease of temperature (RR 1.03, 95% CI 1.01–1.05; p = 0.005) were related to an increase in the number of daily deaths. No gender differences in the impact of air pollution on mortality were observed. In the analysis of the subgroup of cardiovascular deaths, the main pollutant that was found to have an effect on daily mortality was particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM2.5); the RR for 10-µg/m3 increase of PM2.5 was 1.07 (95% CI 1.02–1.12; p = 0.01), and this effect was noted only in the male population. (5) Conclusions: air quality and atmospheric conditions had an impact on the mortality of Bialystok residents. The main air pollutant that influenced the mortality rate was SO2, and there were no gender differences in the impact of this pollutant. In the male population, an increased exposure to PM2.5 concentration was associated with significantly higher cardiovascular mortality. These findings suggest that improving air quality, in particular, even with lower SO2 levels than currently allowed by the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, may benefit public health. Further studies on this topic are needed, but our results bring questions whether the recommendations concerning acceptable concentrations of air pollutants should be stricter, or is there a safe concentration of SO2 in the air at all.

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CAMS-Net: The Clean Air Monitoring and Solutions Network

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-13912 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel Westervelt ◽

Celeste McFarlane ◽

Faye McNeill ◽

R (Subu) Subramanian ◽

Mike Giordano ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Air Quality ◽

Linear Regression ◽

Multiple Linear Regression ◽

Low Cost ◽

Air Monitoring ◽

Quality Data ◽

Calibration Methods ◽

The World ◽

Clean Air

There is a severe lack of air pollution data around the world. This includes large portions of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), as well as rural areas of wealthier nations as monitors tend to be located in large metropolises. Low cost sensors (LCS) for measuring air pollution and identifying sources offer a possible path forward to remedy the lack of data, though significant knowledge gaps and caveats remain regarding the accurate application and interpretation of such devices.The Clean Air Monitoring and Solutions Network (CAMS-Net) establishes an international network of networks that unites scientists, decision-makers, city administrators, citizen groups, the private sector, and other local stakeholders in co-developing new methods and best practices for real-time air quality data collection, data sharing, and solutions for air quality improvements. CAMS-Net brings together at least 32 multidisciplinary member networks from North America, Europe, Africa, and India. The project establishes a mechanism for international collaboration, builds technical capacity, shares knowledge, and trains the next generation of air quality practitioners and advocates, including domestic and international graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.&#160;Here we present some preliminary research accelerated through the CAMS-Net project. Specifically, we present LCS calibration methodology for several co-locations in LMICs (Accra, Ghana; Kampala, Uganda; Nairobi, Kenya; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; and Kolkata, India), in which reference BAM-1020 PM2.5 monitors were placed side-by-side with LCS. We demonstrate that both simple multiple linear regression calibration methods for bias-correcting LCS and more complex machine learning methods can reduce bias in LCS to close to zero, while increasing correlation. For example, in Kampala, Raw PurpleAir PM2.5 data are strongly correlated with the BAM-1020 PM2.5 (r2 = 0.88), but have a mean bias of approximately 12 &#956;g m-3. Two calibration models, multiple linear regression and a random forest approach, decrease mean bias from 12 &#956;g m-3 to -1.84 &#181;g m-3 or less and improve the the r2 from 0.88 to 0.96. We find similar performance in several other regions of the world. Location-specific calibration of low-cost sensors is necessary in order to obtain useful data, since sensor performance is closely tied to environmental conditions such as relative humidity. This work is a first step towards developing a database of region-specific correction factors for low cost sensors, which are exploding in popularity globally and have the potential to close the air pollution data gap especially in resource-limited countries.&#160;&#160;&#160;

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