Students build monitor to take pollution control into their own hands

Students at a school near one of the capital’s most polluted roads have built their own air pollution filters to deal with deadly particulates.

Elmgreen School in Elmcourt Road, Lambeth, which is 50 yards from the South Circular road, recorded “very high levels” of PM2.5, a measure of air pollution associated with conditions including asthma, heart disease and lung cancer.

Working with parents’ group Mums for Lungs and researchers from the University of Nottingham, the students were able to build their own air pollution monitors and filtration system to reduce pollution in their classrooms using a kit that is priced at about £200.

The low-cost systems, which can be easily assembled without specialist training, use smart technology which will ensure the filtration system only operates when pollution levels are high.

James Heydon, assistant professor at the University of Nottingham, who led a workshop with Year 10 students, said: “Since Covid, the problem of air quality inside schools has become increasingly apparent.

“What we’re doing here is trialling a semi-automated, low-cost filtration system for addressing this issue – an approach involving the active participation of students in building the filters.”

According to data published by City Hall, children in London are almost four times more likely to go to a school in an area where air pollution exceeds the World Health Organisation limit, with only two per cent of London schools meeting the WHO guidelines for air quality.

A landmark study of the impact of London’s air pollution found children growing up in polluted parts of the capital showed significantly smaller lung volume, with a loss of approximately five per cent in lung capacity.

The expansion of the ULEZ up to the North and South Circular roads in October this year is expected to bring pollution levels down, to reduce PM2.5 exhaust emissions by 35 per cent in inner London.

Charlie, a Year 10 student at Elmgreen said: “We built a system to test PM2.5 and CO2 levels.

“There are health benefits and will make the classroom feel cleaner and so you don’t feel so groggy, it can also help with learning.”

The students will be using the system to measure the impact of pollution in eight of their classrooms over the coming months and will consider what solutions can be developed to address it.

Pictured top: Elmgreen School students build air pollution filters (Picture: Alex Bigham)