Month: March 2020

Series of Innovators: Insplorion

Sotirios Papathanasiou2 Comments

Starting with Insplorion AB, I am going to feature a series of articles about innovators in the field of air quality monitoring. My aim with these articles is to push the industry into the right direction. I don’t see air pollution as a way to make money but as a way to fix a problem, so by creating the right tools (sensors, air quality monitors, software, etc) we can shape the future towards a sustainable and less polluted environment.

Introduction

Insplorion AB was founded in 2010 in Sweden, Europe by a team of professionals, Bengt Kasemo, Elin Larsson Langhammer, Christoph Langhammer and Igor Zoric. Although it is relatively a small company with less than 20 employees it is very active in nanotechnology, product research and sensor development. Insplorion’s core technology is the NanoPlasmonic Sensing (NPS),at least in my opinion, which you can read and learn how it works more on the interview below.

Interview

1. Tell us a bit about your motivation in developing air quality sensors?

We were approached by an entrepreneur who wanted to make a portable air quality device. He had scanned the market for all sensor technologies and not found any functional, especially for NO2. All current sensors were either too bulky, way too pricy or not sensitive or stable enough.  When we dug deeper into the field, we confirm the problem and saw that the unmet need in the expanding air quality sensor market fitted very well with our core advantages: sensitive yet robust, and easy to miniaturize. Read More »

Updates: Smoggies around the World

Sotirios Papathanasiou1 Comment

In the past 6 months, Smoggies are operating and providing useful air quality insights to the users and the communities all around the world. Right now, there are more than 250 units in total, worldwide.

I decided to see how polluted the air was for my 8 volunteers during the month of February, 2020. Let’s set the record straight and remind ourselves that the WHO guideline stipulates that PM2.5 not exceed 10μg/m3 annual mean, or 25μg/m3 24-hour mean.

Around the World

Read More »

COVID-19, Air Pollution and Global Disruption

Sotirios Papathanasiou3 Comments

I wasn’t planning to write an article about the Coronavirus but after WHO declaring it a pandemic and as I receive a lot of traffic from people who try to find a good mask to protect themselves from the disease I changed my mind and I wrote a few lines on how I see the whole situation.

Better Air Quality

As you may have already read a NASA satellite took some pictures in Mainland China before and after the outbreak of the Covid-19. The imagery illustrates air pollution and how the concentrations of air pollutants have decreased dramatically after people were ordered to stay in quarantine. The same thing happened in Italy as the government restricted the movement and most Italians stayed at home.

Italy air pollution before after covid19

The virus was able to achieve something that I and many fellow clean air advocates try to accomplish for quite some time now, to decrease air pollution in the urban environment.

The restriction of movement proves the fact that the majority of urban air pollution is anthropogenic and mostly due to inefficient transports. Diesel and petrol cars, old buses, vans, vehicle tires and many more. Vehicles don’t move around alone though, we are the drivers, as a result, we can do better.

Madness and misinformation

The madness of buying tones of toilet paper proves how humans are panicking and they are in a survival mode. They copy unconsciously others’ behavior, which is a primitive instinct, in order to make sure they are safe. Covid-19 is a respiratory infection which means it doesn’t mess with your digestive system.

Misinformation is a powerful tool for the exploiters who will say anything to you in order to scare you and of course to take your money. Read and listen to news from trusted sources and make sure you double-check them.

Don’t panic!

Wash your hands well, avoid touching your face and keep your personal belongings clean, like smartphones, computers, glasses, etc.

Masks

Face masks can offer a level of protection if they are well designed and of course, if you maintain them and keep them clean too. If a mask catches a virus, the virus can stay alive for hours and up to a few days.

Conclusion

Some believe that we have to isolate ourselves in a global scale in order to eradicate the disease, however, economically, I am not sure if we can afford it. In addition, spring is almost here (in my city temperatures are reaching 23°C) which makes it much more difficult for people to stay indoors.

I am not an expert in that area but what do you believe? Should we close all businesses and institutes for 2-3 weeks and stay indoors?

Comparison Particulate matter vs virusDroplets SARS-COV-2