I've always thought Earth will fall in my lifetime - is that weird? 

The rise of Extinction Rebellion & coverage of recent environmental catastrophes has only fuelled this feeling. So, obv, I decided to attach a particulate sensor to the side of my flat so I could at least angrily Tweet the data from it to make myself feel better.

I won't go into actually _building the the thing_ in this post because I [followed these excellent instructions from Pimoroni](https://learn.pimoroni.com/tutorial/sandyj/enviro-plus-and-luftdaten-air-quality-station).

<figure>
![Raspberry Pi with some environmental sensors attached](//images.ctfassets.net/rbg3jyy5o9f7/7ohMvyPTVWjXIgQbe4tz8w/b0a02b6ca3244d289e786e102457f681/getting-started-environment-headline.jpg)
<figcaption>Setting up the Raspberry Pi with it's sensors</figcaption>
</figure>

Instead, this post contains some good resources I've been pointed to in order to learn more about actually measuring pollution, and how to find data about pollution levels in your local area. Also, I've discovered the Luftdaten project that you could send your own data to if you were to set up your own environment monitoring system! I also still plan on building my own API as well as POSTing to other peoples just 'cause 🤓. That'll be a future post. I'm also keen to meet other people who'd like to install sensors. Perhaps we could start a meetup!

Anyways, it all started with a Tweet:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What’s the acceptable level of 2.5 and 10 fine dust? Where do I find a good source for this? What’s the average in Manchester?</p>&mdash; ☠️🎃 Rebecca Errorsmith 🎃☠️ (@beckycodes) <a href="https://twitter.com/beckycodes/status/1188125593667280896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

So, this question was naive on a few levels. 

Firstly, we need to measure annual and 24 hour means. A 'high' one off reading can be anything - someone could be burning some toast! The [World Health Organization stipulates](https://web.archive.org/web/20160104165807/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs313/en/) that PM2.5 not exceed 10 μg/m3 annual mean, or 25 μg/m3 24-hour mean; and that PM10 not exceed 20 μg/m3 annual mean, or 50 μg/m3 24-hour mean.

Secondly, there's so many variables to this that I'd like to check environmental changes too. For context, my sensor is attached to the side of my flat which looks out onto the Mancunian Way - a very busy road. I would expect my readings to go up as the amount of traffic goes up, or, the longer the traffic sits idling.

At the moment, I'm letting my sensor run for at least 2 weeks before I start looking deep into the data. It's sending data to Luftdaten and I'm polling it myself and sticking it in a store for me to do some data analysis on later.

## Resources

Some projects you could support, and places to learn more about monitoring pollution in your environment.

### Luftdaten

From [their website](https://luftdaten.info/en/home-en/): 

<blockquote class="contentful">OK Lab Stuttgart is dedicated to the fine dust measurement with the Citizen Science project luftdaten.info. You and thousands of others around the world install self-built sensors on the outside their home. Luftdaten.info generates a continuously updated particular matter map from the transmitted data. Fine dust becomes visible.</blockquote>

It's the most mature citizen science project I've found on the internet with lot's of sensors all over the world.

### DEFRAs interactive air quality map

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have their [own mapping](https://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/interactive-map) measuring lots of different things in the air. Really interesting to have a poke around, especially near heavy industry.


### AirVisual Air Quality Forecast app

This [app boasts data from 10000 sources](https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/airvisual-air-quality-forecast/id1048912974) around the world and they validate all their sensors. Cool to explore pollution levels around the world

### Purple Air

Propriatory sensors but they offer a wealth of data with little set up time compared to Luftdaten. Seems good for "less techy people". See [this example](https://www.purpleair.com/map?select=6588&module=AQI&conversion=C0&average=10&layer=standard&advanced=false&inside=true&outside=true&mine=true#10.58/53.4478/-2.3045) of a sensor based in Manchester.

## Want to work together?

There are only 3 'offical' air quality monitoring stations in Manchester. These are in Piccadilly Gardens, Oxford Road and Manchester Sharston. You can find out more about those sites [here](https://secure.manchester.gov.uk/info/200075/pollution/7697/air_quality/2).

Now, I'm no expert, but I would think a gathering data around the Ring Road/Mancunian Way and [Central Retail Park](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-50086330) would be much more interesting. I'd really like to chat if you have, or are interested in gathering data in central Manchester.

Please leave a comment if you think I could be going about anything differently, or have new resources or info. Very keen to learn more about this sort of stuff :)

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Getting started in Citizen Science: monitoring pollution

How to get started with monitoring pollution levels - become a citizen scientist!

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Getting started in Citizen Science: monitoring pollution