Learn about, talk about and measure air quality
Clean Air Barnet was set up as a citizen science project to help local communities engage and understand more about their personal exposure to air pollution.
Our approach
We believe that:
- Air quality is a public and environmental health issue
- Individuals and organisations will make better decisions and take more effective actions if they are provided with evidence based information and insights.
We engage people in ways that help them learn about, talk about, and measure, air quality.
Insights
We create and share knowledge and insights with, and for the benefit of, our communities. Our insight reports include the following:
- Cooking on Gas
A 2023 report based on use of monitor that highlighted the impact of different cooking styles on levels of indoor air pollution in a residents flat and that cooking on gas was the main contributor to indoor air pollution. - A Decade of Data – 2014-2023
A 2024 report based on analysis of Council NO2
and PM10 data that showed improvements in outdoor air quality over the previous decade had been achieved yet were not sufficient to meet the World Health Organisation guidelines. - Breathe London insights
Insight reports based on analysis of publicly available data from the Breathe London network of monitors including comparison of data from across London. (2024 insights report)
Citizen Science
Measuring personal exposure
In addition to building knowledge and insights about outdoor air quality, we use portable monitors to measure personal exposure to air quality, 24 hours a day – indoors and outdoors.
Using portable monitors enables participants to learn about, talk about and measure the quality of the air they breathe.
Citizen science Projects
We organise projects where we lend monitors to volunteers for a few weeks. We provide support and advice and encourage people to share experiences and stories about what they find and any impact on their behaviour.
Data gathered by each individual is accessed anonymously in line with Middlesex University ethics to enable further analysis.
Citizen Science projects we have organised include:
- All Saints School Child Hill – parents using monitors and engaging with their children about findings
- Barnet Council – employees using monitors for familiarisation with their use
- Brampton College Hendon – project with students and teachers to explore curriculum use of monitors and collected data
- East Finchley Town Team – have purchased 5 monitors for their own use
- Big Measure – 50 people using monitors across North London
What we have learned
Citizen science:
- helps us understand more about personal exposure through stories and data
- impacts on participant knowledge about air quality and behaviour about how to reduce risk
- provides more evidence about sources of air pollution
While portable monitors are not as accurate as outdoor fixed monitors, we have found that using them has a much higher level of impact compared to providing data and insights about outdoor air quality.
Stories are powerful – while the data collected is interesting and provides more evidence about the factors that influence the air quality where we are, we found that sharing individuals stories about how behaviours were reinforced or changed while using the monitors, were more impactful when engaging and communicating about air quality – whether that be with individuals in the community or with people in organisations who have a role to play in protecting and improving health and wellbeing.
A recent blog post about citizen science and Clean Air Barnet:
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/breathing-consciously-how-citizen-science-helped-me-see-air-differently
Despite concerns about accuracy, the data shows that people experience similar patterns of poor air quality on multiple occasions in similar circumstances (e.g. on the tube, when close to commercial or home cooking, when near to smoking or bonfires). Using monitors can provide large amounts of data that provides an evidence base not provided by outdoor monitoring.
Personal, portable monitors are an effective way of engaging people about the impact of air quality on their health and the impact of their actions on the quality of air that they breathe.
Data and insights about indoor air quality can help inform how our indoor environments are designed, managed and maintained in ways that provide us with air that is as clean as possible.
