Month: May 2021

Episode 5: Sheffield, UK – Professional Opinion

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

Episode 5: Sheffield, UK – Professional Opinion – See The Air | Real Life Stories

In this episode, James Heydon, who lives in Sheffield UK, will share with us his professional thoughts on air pollution.
James is an Assistant Professor in Criminology.
You may think, how can a criminologist shed light on air pollution!
Well, James is currently researching air pollution regulations, and his academic studies in human behavior could help us understand better why most people neglect to think about the air they breathe.

Twitter: @Jwheydon

Please share and rate this episode with 5 stars.

Review: Air Quality Guardian by Analox

Sotirios Papathanasiou3 Comments

This is the second Analox product review that I have written on my blog. I like the product range and the solutions that Analox offer to professionals. The first review was about the CO2BUDDY, a portable/wearable carbon dioxide (CO2) monitor. In this review, I will write about the Air Quality Guardian. The Air Quality Guardian is a CO2 monitor station, designed for those that don’t want unnecessary smart features and too many bells and whistles.

The large LCD display provides plenty of clear information for those professionals that don’t have the luxury of time to continually take their phones out of their pockets in order to check the CO2 concentrations and trends. Keep in mind, the monitor measures other environmental parameters as well.

Specifications

  • 4” backlit LCD screen
  • CO2 Sensor Low drift NDIR (Non dispersive infra-red) CO2  sensor with a long lifespan 
  • Temperature and Relative Humidity Sensor
  • Simple 4 button navigation
  • Built-in data logging 
  • Simple three-level indoor air quality indication system including: 
  • Configurable audible and visual alarms
  • Power and charge via mini USB
  • 8 hour battery backup
  • Wall mountable or desktop
  • Dimensions 120 x 90 x 35 mm 4.75 x 3.5 x 1.4 in
  • CE, UKCA, RoHS 2.0 and FCC compliant
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Awair OMNI + Djinn

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

I love combining technologies and services because this is a great and inexpensive way for companies to expand their businesses and for users to have a better experience. Awair has developed a great B2B air quality monitor the OMNI (hardware) and Djinn has developed a great B2B service (software) that combined together may offer better AQ insights or in other words, they contextualize data.

So I took the liberty to use the API Awair provides to its users and integrate it into Djinn’s platform. The reason is simple, Awair measures a plethora of parameters (temperature, humidity, PM2.5, VOC, CO2, noise, and light), and Djinn provides better insights into the impact those various indoor environmental parameters have on our health, like cardiovascular health risk and allergy risk. However, they also provide the productivity index which estimates the quality of the indoor environment with regard to the influence on productivity.

In real-life situations (offices, classrooms, etc) low-quality indoor environments may result in productivity drop up to 10% and more. Often in such cases, indoor environment quality is not comprehended by a person during the work process. The productivity index is based on research by cognitive scientists from various Universities.

According to the researchers, Human Decision Making Performance may be divided into different cognitive functions. Djinn service is able not only to estimate a general level of productivity, called Integral Productivity Index (IPI) but specify it for 9 cognitive activity areas based on research. An IPI is calculated as the average of all 9 directions. Those different models allow you to tune indoor parameters for optimal productivity according to your needs.

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Episode 4: Murcia, Spain – Agricultural Burning

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

Episode 4: Murcia, Spain – Agricultural Burning – See The Air | Real Life Stories

[EN]This is a dual-language episode. If you want to listen to the Spanish version please go to minute 18.In this episode, Luis, who lives in Murcia Spain, will share with us his everyday experience with air pollution. The main source of air pollution in his city and the general region is agricultural burning as citizens face the political unwillingness to address the issue. There is a law that prohibits the practice but it is not enforced.Please share and rate this episode with 5 stars.[ES]Este es un episodio de doble lenguaje. Si desea escuchar la versión en español, por favor, vaya al minuto 18.En este episodio, Luis, que vive en Murcia España, compartirá con nosotros su experiencia cotidiana con la contaminación del aire.La principal fuente de contaminación del aire en su ciudad y la región general es la quema agrícola, ya que los ciudadanos enfrentan la falta de voluntad política para controlar el problema. Hay una ley que prohíbe la práctica de quemas, pero no se hace cumplir.Por favor, comparte y califica este episodio con 5 estrellas.

[EN]
This is a dual-language episode. If you want to listen to the Spanish version please go to minute 18.

In this episode, Luis, who lives in Murcia Spain, will share with us his everyday experience with air pollution.
The main source of air pollution in his city and the general region is agricultural burning as citizens face the political unwillingness to address the issue. There is a law that prohibits the practice but it is not enforced.

[ES]
Este es un episodio de doble lenguaje. Si desea escuchar la versión en español, por favor, vaya al minuto 18.

En este episodio, Luis, que vive en Murcia España, compartirá con nosotros su experiencia cotidiana con la contaminación del aire.
La principal fuente de contaminación del aire en su ciudad y la región general es la quema agrícola, ya que los ciudadanos enfrentan la falta de voluntad política para controlar el problema. Hay una ley que prohíbe la práctica de quemas, pero no se hace cumplir.

Por favor, comparte y califica este episodio con 5 estrellas.

Please share and rate this episode with 5 stars.

Review: CO2BUDDY by Analox

Sotirios Papathanasiou2 Comments

Carbon dioxide (CO2) monitor sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic because they are good indicators of the indoor conditions in public places like schools, offices, restaurants, etc. The CO2BUDDY can be used in all these cases. However, it can cover even more scenarios as it functions as a tool for professionals that work in places where the conditions are extreme, for example, in dry ice shipping & logistics and COVID-19 vaccine distribution channels.

Dry ice is a solid form of CO2. As it warms, it goes through a process called sublimation, meaning it goes directly from a solid to a gas, bypassing the liquid state. As a result, huge concentrations of CO2 are released into the atmosphere and the environment. These concentrations can reach critical levels for the health of the employees.

I want my review to be as accurate as possible and despite the fact that I don’t work in harsh environments, I know people that they do, so I asked them to wear the CO2BUDDY during their workdays and share their experience with me. They were more than happy to help and they also took some photos. Before reading their experience let’s learn some technical details about the monitor.

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Ranking of Cities by Air Pollution! Nope!

Sotirios Papathanasiou2 Comments
English
Español

English

I have come to the conclusion that rankings of cities by air pollution are not accurate and they don’t reflect the real situation in large communities because if you are unlucky enough to have a careless neighbor that burns wood/garbage/etc or you live outside the Low Traffic Neighborhoods (LTNs) and official AQ stations are far away from you then you are screwed!

Basically, your health is a subject of what others want, and there is little you can do to protect yourself. You can always stay indoors with purifies all over the house 24/7 and unable to open a window for oxygenated air to come inside. That is not correct as your freedom to open a window or walk outside your house and the right to breathe clean air are taken from you.

There are many studies talking about inequality in low-income communities. In a recent study researchers have even identified the fact that there are less trees around poor communities than in high-income ones.

Politicians marginalize the work-class constantly by refusing to find solutions to their problems. Some laws protect us from air pollution but they are not enforced. So far scientists have gathered hundred of evidence that tells us firmly that air pollution kills – more than 7 million people have died prematurely worldwide due to air pollution. Personally, death doesn’t scare me, but living a life with many medications and unable to function as a human being (Alzheimer’s among some of the most common diseases) is my biggest fear and air pollution can decrease the quality of life. It is hard to quantify morbidity which means the condition of suffering from a disease or medical condition. This is not the future I want for myself and the people around me and you shouldn’t too.

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Episode 3: Melbourne, Australia – Wood Burning/Coal

Sotirios Papathanasiou1 Comment

Episode 3: Melbourne, Australia – Wood Burning/Coal – See The Air | Real Life Stories

In this episode, Arabella Daniel, who lives in Melbourne Australia, will share with us her everyday experience with air pollution. Arabella has founded "Clean Air Communities" in Australia. She is active at local, state & federal government level to advocate for policy change on Clean Air. Twitter: @CAirCommunities Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cleanaircommunities Please share and rate this episode with 5 stars.

In this episode, Arabella Daniel, who lives in Melbourne Australia, will share with us her everyday experience with air pollution.
Arabella has founded “Clean Air Communities” in Australia. She is active at local, state & federal government level to advocate for policy change on Clean Air.

Twitter: @CAirCommunities
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cleanaircommunities

Please share and rate this episode with 5 stars.