This Canadian project that is happening in the vicinity of Toronto and Hamilton points out just how ‘citizen science’, when it works with modern technology, are able to make a difference. INHALE – an acronym for “Initiative for Healthy Air & Local Economies”, is also run by Environment Hamilton and Toronto Environmental Alliance, will allow regular folks to participate in air quality monitoring in their local area:
You basically move around with a provided device that measures particulate matter in the air, which will also have an integrated GPS chipset. All data will be uploaded to an online heat map, where other folks can then check out just which are the polluted air hotspots, and where are the green lungs in the area in which one is able t escape to during times of stress. Pretty neat, eh? Far better than having to install stationary air monitoring stations.