According to studies, children who breathe faster and have a higher metabolic rate than adults have a higher oxygen consumption per kilogram and exposure to air pollutants. There are clear associations between air pollution and several conditions, including heart and lung disease, respiratory infections, dementia, miscarriage, stunted lung growth in children, teenage psychotic episodes, and reduced cognitive ability. Considering that children spend most of the day at school, air quality in and around schools is essential. Schools are usually located in high-traffic areas, or they create the traffic themselves. Therefore, it is obvious how dirty, busy and dangerous the surrounding roads are during the entrance and exit times of the school.
For the health of our children, there is a need for a monitoring system that can monitor changes and pollution according to time and seasons by providing real-time information about the air quality at school.
Challenges in the Schools – School Playgrounds related to air quality management
- Children are more vulnerable to the effects of air pollution —Because of their short stature (especially in kindergarten and primary school), school-going children may be exposed to airborne dust and exhaust gases 60% more than adults.
- Location of school districts —Cities have become car-centered cities. The fact that it is located in schools, in places with heavy traffic, on the sides of main roads, or next to industrial areas in big cities increases exposure to air pollutants.
- Vehicle engines idling during school entry and exit times —Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM2.5 or 10) may increase unnecessarily during drop-off/pick-up times, both on and around school facilities, due to engine idling and vehicle acceleration-deceleration
- Air pollutants also affect the indoor environment —Vehicle emissions easily enter school buildings, including classrooms. This poses a danger to the air quality of children and school personnel.
- High cost of air quality measurement tools —Air quality measurement stations standardized by the EU (and similar organizations) are expensive to purchase and operate. These devices placed at specific points of the city are insufficient to understand the air pollution around schools and schools.
Solution
Airqoon is a low-cost and easy-to-use hyper-local air pollution management solution that provides real-time, data-driven, actionable environmental intelligence to companies in the Schools – School Playgrounds.
- Airqoon sensor units are backed with airqoon clouds, and their compact size allows real-time air quality monitoring at every production stage.
- Analyzing real-time and historical measurement data, Airqoon prepares monthly and annual air quality performance reports.
- The cloud-based Airqoon sensor units are energy self-sufficient and are managed remotely with minimum intervention for maintenance.
- With the help of continuous monitoring, environmental and occupational health risks are analyzed using high-resolution Spatio-temporal data.
