Category: air quality

Thailand School sets the AQ bar high – An example to be followed

Sotirios Papathanasiou4 Comments

On Earth, there are over 7 billion people but very few of them have a clear vision of a future and how important air quality is for our health. You will find politicians that are unwilling to enforce air quality laws, you will find educators scared to share with parents the indoor air quality, and you will find lots of people unaware of what they breathe or what they burn.

Among all of them, you will find very few people that want to make things right for the rest. In this case, the Head of School at Prem Tinsulanonda International School in Chiang Mai, Thailand was brave and educated enough to recognize the power of air quality data.

Chiang Mai is a city in exotic Thailand that always ranks in the top polluted cities in the world between March and April. The reason is the burning season. I was taught about the 4 seasons (Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter) at school but it turns out that they have a fifth season − normally in March and April − when crop waste burning and forest fires fill the air with particles, PM2.5 levels can reach 300 μg/m³.

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Review: Aranet4 HOME – CO2 Monitor [EN/ES/GR]

Sotirios Papathanasiou12 Comments

Impact-Site-Verification: 8822d984-d7e0-4efd-9190-e8b1d8a8a633

(Scroll down for the Spanish or Greek version of the review/Desplácese hacia abajo para la versión en español o Griega/ Μετακινηθείτε προς τα κάτω για την ισπανική ή την ελληνική έκδοση της αξιολόγησης)

English
Español
Ελληνικά

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It is not a coincidence that everywhere you look nowadays you see a small, square, and white monitor with a screen in the middle that displays some numbers! Well, this is Aranet4 which was developed by a Latvian company.

Aranet4 is a small and mighty CO2 monitor that surprise people for two reasons. First of all, it is very comprehensive, and secondly, most people are intrigued by the technology of the display as it uses an e-ink display and, to the untrained eye, looks like a simple sticker.

The commonly found AA batteries can operate the monitor for up to 2 years so you don’t have to worry about them. It uses a single channel non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) sensor technology for accurate CO₂ measurements, read more here.

Specifications

  • Carbon Dioxide (CO2) NDIR
  • Temperature (ºC/ºF)
  • Relative Humidity
  • Atmospheric Pressure
  • e-ink Display
  • Bluetooth
  • Buzzer (Alarm)
  • AA Battery Operated (up to 2 years)
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Episode 2: Athens, Greece – Wood Burning/Fireplaces

Sotirios Papathanasiou6 Comments

Episode 2: Athens, Greece – Wood Burning/Fireplaces – See The Air | Real Life Stories

[EN]This is a bilingual episode. If you want to listen to the Greek version please go to minute 14:52.In this episode, Andrea, who lives in Athens Greece, will share with us his everyday experience with air pollution.The main source of air pollution in his city during winter is wood burning/fireplaces.Andrea tries to educate the Greek community about the dangerous of air pollution on his blog.Website: https://cleanairingreece.org/Twitter: @cleanairgreeceFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/abonettiphoto/Please share and rate this episode with 5 stars.[GR]Αυτό είναι ένα δίγλωσσο επεισόδιο. Εάν θέλετε να ακούσετε την ελληνική έκδοση, πηγαίνετε στα 14 λεπτά και 52 δευτερόλεπτα.Σε αυτό το επεισόδιο, ο Andrea, που ζει στην Αθήνα, θα μοιραστεί μαζί μας την καθημερινή εμπειρία του με την ατμοσφαιρική ρύπανση.Η κύρια πηγή ατμοσφαιρικής ρύπανσης στην πόλη του κατά τη διάρκεια του χειμώνα είναι καύση ξύλου / τζάκια.Ο Andrea προσπαθεί να εκπαιδεύσει την ελληνική κοινότητα σχετικά με την επικινδυνότητα της ατμοσφαιρική ρύπανση στο blog του.Website: https://cleanairingreece.org/Twitter: @cleanairgreeceFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/abonettiphoto/Παρακαλώ μοιράστε και βαθμολογήστε αυτό το επεισόδιο με 5 αστέρια.

[EN]
This is a bilingual episode. If you want to listen to the Greek version please go to minute 14:52.

In this episode, Andrea, who lives in Athens Greece, will share with us his everyday experience with air pollution.
The main source of air pollution in his city during winter is wood burning/fireplaces.
Andrea tries to educate the Greek community about the dangerous of air pollution on his blog.

Website: https://cleanairingreece.org/
Twitter: @cleanairgreece
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abonettiphoto/

Please share and rate this episode with 5 stars.

[GR]
Αυτό είναι ένα δίγλωσσο επεισόδιο. Εάν θέλετε να ακούσετε την ελληνική έκδοση, πηγαίνετε στα 14 λεπτά και 52 δευτερόλεπτα.

Σε αυτό το επεισόδιο, ο Andrea, που ζει στην Αθήνα, θα μοιραστεί μαζί μας την καθημερινή εμπειρία του με την ατμοσφαιρική ρύπανση.
Η κύρια πηγή ατμοσφαιρικής ρύπανσης στην πόλη του κατά τη διάρκεια του χειμώνα είναι καύση ξύλου / τζάκια.
Ο Andrea προσπαθεί να εκπαιδεύσει την ελληνική κοινότητα σχετικά με την επικινδυνότητα της ατμοσφαιρική ρύπανση στο blog του.

Website: https://cleanairingreece.org/
Twitter: @cleanairgreece
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abonettiphoto/

Παρακαλώ μοιράστε και βαθμολογήστε αυτό το επεισόδιο με 5 αστέρια.

Spring Clean Your Indoor Air Quality

Sotirios Papathanasiou6 Comments

During Spring (March, April, May) most people in Northern Hemisphere dedicate extra time to clean and organize their house for the warmer months. Many times we start this process unconscious of the dangerous chemicals present in cleaning products that may be released into the indoor environment. What can we do to improve indoor air quality, especially during spring when many people suffer from allergies?

Here I will conclude a few tips and steps in order to make the most out of this process and detox your house from nasty chemicals and other pollutants/allergens.

1st Tip – Bed Linen

It is important to ventilated bed linen and in case this is not an option we can always change them with clean ones. It is hard to tell how often someone should change the bedsheets but I would recommend at least 2 twice a month. Avoid synthetic textiles like Acrylic, Polyester, Nylon, etc, and invest in good cotton or silk (expensive) sheets and pillowcases as they offer the most comfortable experience, and they don’t pollute the environment once they are washed.

Dead skin and hair can build up and we don’t want to feed dust mites. According to House Dust Biology by J. Bronswijk human skin particles make up approximately 53% of household dust which leads me to the next tip.

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Podcast Ep1: See The Air | Real Life Stories

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

I am very happy to announce that I am launching a new series of Podcast episodes where people from all around the world will be able to share their experience with air pollution and how it affects their lives.

The episodes will be available in all big Podcast distributional channels like Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, and Spreaker.

Episode 1 : London, UK – Traffic Pollution and LTNs

In the first episode, we will hear Ediz from London, UK. Ediz is a clean air campaigner and he and his family members have to breathe lots of traffic-related air pollution as his neighborhood is jammed by hundreds of cars every day.

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Review: Aether Air HA30 an in-Vehicle Air Purifier

Sotirios Papathanasiou5 Comments

Commuting to work is proved to contribute the biggest daily exposure to air pollutants according to the University of California. Car filters are not very good at filtering out PM1, PM2.5, and PM10 particles from vehicle emissions as they were originally designed to catch large particles like dust and pollen. Gas filtration is non-existence even today in any vehicle, as a result, drivers and vehicle passengers breathe notorious toxic fumes.

Although I believe that if you live in a city and you work in the same city, you should find a better way to commute, for some people this is not an option. Consequently, they need to find a way to protect themselves and mitigate their exposure to air pollution.

Aether Air HA30 is an in-vehicle air purifier capable of filtering particulate matter and eliminating nitrogen dioxide (NO2) among other chemicals.

It uses the same technology as the HA500 domestic purifier but in a smaller package. The D-Orbital Nano Oxide (DNO) filter, which is an innovative filtration system invented by the founding CTO of Oxford Catalyst plc (a leader in novel industrial catalysts)” and a HEPA 13 filter.

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Review: HA500 Air Purifier by Healthy Air Technology

Sotirios Papathanasiou13 Comments

It is not always an easy task to keep indoor air free from pollutants, especially, when Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) is present in indoor environments. In most cases, there is little you can do to eliminate NO2 and other gases like Sulphur Dioxide (SO2), Formaldehyde (TVOC), or even pathogens like H1N1 Influenza A virus (pandemic flu), and Staphylococcus aureus (or similar bacteria).

Here comes the HA500 Air Purifier by Healthy Air Technology which is able to eliminate all of these pollutants/pathogens from indoor environments. It does that thanks to the triple-layered system with a primary filter, HEPA 13 filter, and Pollution Eraser DNO filter. DNO means D-Orbital Nano Oxide which is made of two parts. 

1st part: The Carrier – Activated charcoal. The material that is used in military gas masks, and captures pollutants within the pores of the charcoal.
2nd part: The Transition metal oxides – Transition metal oxides are coated in the activated charcoal to form catalysts, and these catalysts break down pollutants and toxic gases into harmless chemicals and then release these harmless materials back into the atmosphere like water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, etc. The DNO is invented by the founding CTO of Oxford Catalyst plc (a leader in novel industrial catalysts).

HA500 Control Panel and Display
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Penetration of Particles into the Human Body

Sotirios Papathanasiou5 Comments

How deep can pollution particles go into the human body?

How to Use CO2 Monitors

Sotirios Papathanasiou2 Comments

I see a lot of pictures on social media platforms where people measure Carbon Dioxide (CO2) concentrations in indoor environments incorrectly.

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Review: Envirosuite – Air Quality Management Platform

Sotirios PapathanasiouLeave a comment

In today’s marketplace, there are many ambient air quality monitors capable of measuring multiple environmental parameters and pollutants in real-time. However, air quality monitors aren’t useful unless they are paired with an intelligent software platform in order to extrapolate the information and make it serviceable to operators and communities.

 Envirosuite has succeeded in embedded 30+ years or experience working with complex air quality and meteorology challenges directly into an advanced software platform. Users can make operational decisions based on insights from real-time air quality data and emissions modeling. Furthermore, they can identify the likely sources of air quality pollution from past incidents. 

The platform is currently used by over 500 industrial operations such as mines, oil refineries, maritime ports, construction sites but also for municipal authorities in cities. Noise management capabilities are also used at 200 of the world’s major airports.

Key modules and their functionalities

Envirosuite does just that and it is a global leader in Environmental Intelligence, using proprietary technology and real-time localized data to help industries grow sustainably and communities to thrive. The platform integrates with pre-existing monitoring devices that are capturing data on multiple air quality parameters. It is offered as SaaS (software-as-a-service) subscription supported by AWS cloud technology and is segmented into modular solutions for to assist with specific air quality challenges.

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