To facilitate measurement both outdoors and indoors indoors (where we spend the majority of our time), Sensaris is releasing its Senspod EcoPM so users can now check ultrafine particle levels directly on their mobile phones.
Growing worldwide concern about PM
A growing number of city government are asked to act on improving environmental quality. For example, at the beginning of March 2012, the Hong Kong government began releasing hourly readings of ultrafine particles, as it bowed to public pressure for greater transparency about air quality.
In 2013, the monitoring of PM2.5 and Ozone will be extended to 113 cities in China.
If you’re interested in having international comparison for PM 2.5 and PM 10 in cities, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has conducted a very interesting study with a lot of data available.
Impact on health
Particles in ambient air have been associated with adverse health effects, including respiratory and cardiovascular effects. (See “Tackling the global clean air challenge report” by WHO)
Find additional information about air quality impact on health
Such Ultrafine particles can be “imported” from the outdoors but they can also be generated by combustion (cooking, heating, smoking…..) or by reactions between ozone and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
You can find more information about ultrafine particles here
A mobile sensor with a phone application
The ability to use low cost mobile phones to record the fine particle levels provides a new tool to understand adverse possible causes of high particle counts as well as monitor trends, evaluate the effectiveness of control strategies and the degree of improvement brought by new solutions.
The GPS module also enables the unit to be carried by pedestrians or mounted on vehicles in order to map out cities and help city governments to provide citizens with the means to compare areas and evaluate progress.
Go to our Products page to learn more about EcoPM.
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