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Low-cost sensors help protect kids' health by monitoring classroom air quality

25 September 2024

Researchers have developed low-cost indoor air quality sensors for schools, offering a powerful tool to monitor air pollution and protect the health of young people.

Image: Shutterstock
Image: Shutterstock

The University of Birmingham researchers installed air pollution sensors in three classrooms at a Cardiff secondary school – measuring particulate matter (PM), which is the most important pollutant for human health. 

The sensors allowed researchers to pinpoint the sources of air pollution within the classrooms and whether they came from inside or outside the room.

Sensor data showed that 93-98 percent of tiny PM1 pollutants originated outside the building. This contribution decreased as particle size increased, with outdoor sources accounting for 74-89 percent of PM2.5 and 19-40 percent of larger PM10 particles respectively.

In addition to outdoor sources, they discovered that differences in classroom PM concentration related to differences in lesson activities and frequency, whether the room was carpeted or hard floored, and the classroom’s location within the school.

Co-author and Clean Air Fellow Owain Rose commented: “Indoor air quality is becoming one of the most important factors for public health, as people spend far more time indoors compared to outdoors.”

“By combining low-cost air pollution sensors with algorithms to determine pollution source, we can understand the factors affecting indoor air quality within a typical UK school – measuring air pollution concentrations during a typical school week and subsequent holiday period.”

The researchers discovered PM levels remained within World Health Organisation guidelines whilst students were in the building during school hours – with the dominant sources of PM1 and PM2.5 coming from outdoors, whilst PM10 sources were mainly from indoor sources.

Co-author and Clean Air Fellow Catrin Rathbone commented: “Our approach is easily translated to other indoor locations worldwide and could be scaled due to its low cost. 

“It would allow air quality management in locations crucial for the public health and educational outcomes of children.”
The high school studied is in an urban area of Cardiff and accommodates approximately 900 pupils, between the ages of 11 and 19. 

For the two-week study period, three optical particle counter (OPC) sensors were installed in a religious studies classroom, an English studies classroom, and a home economics classroom.

Air pollution is a significant global environmental challenge that endangers human health, especially among vulnerable populations like children.

Schools represent a significant microenvironment for exposure to air pollution during childhood. In the UK, children spend 14.1 percent of their total year in school, making healthy indoor air quality within school environments vital for safeguarding their health.

The Clean Air Fund and the University of Birmingham, with the generous support of the McCall MacBain Foundation, launched the innovative Clean Air Fellowship in 2022 and the programme has now entered its third year.

Designed by academics who are world-leading in their field, the programme identifies individuals who can demonstrate a strong rationale for studying air pollution and can commit to tackling the problem through their career choices after they graduate.

The Fellowship focuses on recruiting future clean air leaders from the UK and to address the high air pollution levels in Central and Eastern Europe.

 The partnership with the Clean Air Fund creates extra-curricular learning and networking opportunities through the world’s largest philanthropically funded organisation dedicated to challenging air pollution.

Professor Francis Pope, from the University of Birmingham, commented: “The University of Birmingham is passionate about clean air – we’re at the forefront of research on the causes and effects of air pollution upon human health across the UK and around the globe.

“The Fellowships are designed to lay the foundations for atmospheric scientists to progress in this field and contribute to resolving atmospheric pollution issues in their countries.

“I’m delighted to see Owain and Catrin – two members of our first cohort – making such a valuable contribution to the air pollution debate with their first published paper.”

Imogen Martineau from the Clean Air Fund stated, “It has been amazing to see the success of the first Clean Air Fellow cohort. 

“Owain and Catrin have been amazing ambassadors, and it is great to see them continuing their clean air journeys through taking jobs with leading environmental consultancies that specialise in air quality.”


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