Monitoring air quality is essential for authorities to ensure pollution levels in the area do not exceed regulatory limits. The air quality data gathered can be used to identify pollution sources, as well as develop strategies and inform policies to manage levels of air pollution and mitigate its impact on the health of the population.
Urban air pollution is typically a variety of pollutants from a range of sources, which mix at different rates, as well as being influenced by local weather conditions. Key pollutants of interest in towns and cities tend to be NO2, O3 and PM2.5, which are all harmful to our respiratory systems. Small air quality sensors for these pollutants can often be limited by the impact of fluctuating temperatures, humidity levels and other gases, but AQMesh has been carefully developed to withstand and compensate for the effects of complex environmental conditions and able to monitor levels of NO2, O3, PM2.5 (and all the other measurements on offer) accurately and reliably, so meaningful data can be used to develop policies for protecting citizens.
Many people are concerned about children being exposed to harmful pollutants not only while they travel to and from school but also whilst they are spending large proportions of the day there. Commuter traffic during busy periods and idling vehicles near the school entrance are common sources of pollution that affect the local air quality around school premises. Studies show that NO2, O3 and PM2.5 are particularly dangerous for young people as they can significantly impair lung development, as well as being key asthma triggers and causes of lung disease and cancer.
Monitoring air quality throughout towns, cities and especially around schools can help with initiatives for reducing vehicle traffic and encouraging more people to walk or use bicycles, as part of wider pollution mitigation strategies in the local area, such as increased pedestrianisation, use of public transport, improving road networks, implementing low emission zones and introducing “no idling” laws.
AQMesh pods require very little maintenance and there is a very low ongoing cost. All we recommend is the electrochemical sensors are replaced every two years, and we replace all sensors for free during the first year.
AQMesh pods are neat, compact and easy install within just a few minutes and experienced technical staff are not required. A 90 second installation video shows just how quick it is to be up and running.
Meaningful correction of cross-gas effects and interference from environmental conditions is consistently delivered through proven and traceable processing.
The carefully developed data processing algorithms used by AQMesh are fully traceable and fixed by version number, and, unlike other systems, have been achieved with no use of machine learning or artificial intelligence.
AQMesh has been on the market and in the field since 2012, with some customers still successfully operating the exact same pods they received 12 years ago.
Encrypted disks, complex authentication, audit logs and proactive systems for continuous detection of vulnerabilities and intrusions are routinely examined, making the AQMeshData server – and users’ data – as secure as possible.
The Breathe London pilot, which used 100 AQMesh pods as part of a ground breaking city-wide network of air quality monitoring stations, proved that small sensor monitoring technology can be deployed successfully to give results comparable with those of reference equipment.
A network of sensors has been set up in Newcastle in order to give policymakers a more accurate picture of the air being breathed by children.
AQMesh is being used as part of the newly revived Breathe Easy Dallas initiative – a project designed to measure and understand air pollution at neighbourhood level.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has purchased fifty AQMesh pods to measure key air pollution gases and particulate matter across fifty different zip code areas.
A UK local authority installed nine AQMesh systems at different points across a busy town, measuring nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at 15 minute intervals, monitoring 24/7. These locations were established monitoring points, where measurements had been taken previously using diffusion tubes, limited to one average reading every few weeks.
A UK local authority measured the difference in local air pollution levels when reopening roads that had previously been closed for social distancing purposes as part of Covid-19 mitigation efforts.
Contact our experienced team today for more information about AQMesh and how it can support your monitoring objectives.
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