Air apparent

Pollution hasn't gone away. It's still there in every lungful, even if we can't see it in the air or on the news. But there are reasons to breathe easier, thanks to pioneering projects using cycling 'citizen scientists'. Rob Ainsley took part in one...

- Rob Ainsley

The toxic effects of pollution have been known about for years. 'Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!' sang 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer.

Over recent decades, though, pollution has dropped down our list of things to worry about, thanks to ominously capitalised concerns such as Climate Change, AI, Global Conflict, Species Collapse, etc. That doesn't, unfortunately, mean the problem has expired. Air quality often exceeds safe limits, with far-reaching and crippling effects on our health.

But there's good news, for this threat at least. We can take direct, effective, evasive action. We know this thanks to illuminating new research on what's going into our lungs - some of it being done by citizen scientists on bikes. You and me, in other words.

I was one of those citizen scientists in 2023. As I cycled every day in and around my home town of York, doing my normal routes, a Plume sensor on my handlebars the size of a cigarette lighter analysed the air quality and uploaded data to a research project, York Air Map (yorkairmap.org). It also displayed airquality measurements in real time on an app, Flow 2, on my mobile phone.

And what it told me often induced a sharp intake of breath. An acrid one.

Sometimes the dire figures weren't so surprising. Train stations have awfully dirty air. Well, duh. Eleven platforms of diesel engines under York's vaulted roof, what did I expect? Other times they came as a shock.

Innocent-looking country lanes, far from a main road, might flash red with danger warnings. Yet, on the other hand, a breezy day could produce pollution-free readings even on a main road.

I couldn't even escape lung damage inside my own house, as I found when recharging my sensor. Sometimes the living room air quality was terrible.

At times closing the window made it better; at others, puzzlingly, that made things worse.