Project: Inhale
Calling all new moms … and municipal officials … here’s a way to get your kids involved in Earth stewardship really early.
A joint project between the Toronto Environmental Alliance and Environment Hamilton called “Inhale” has volunteers strap air quality monitors and GPS systems to their baby strollers to get street-by-street measurements of air pollution. The devices measure particulate matter in the air, maps it, and uploads it to a server where you can see the results on a heatmap.
The devices can also be strapped to backpacks and bike handles.
Identifying neighbourhood ‘hot spots’ for air particulate pollution is an important first step in sparking community dialogue around neighbourhood-level solutions designed to improve air quality and ultimately, quality of life. ~ Inhale Project
If you live in one of the pilot project areas, you can volunteer to be an Inhale volunteer. If you live elsewhere, you might want to start a similar project in your own city. Meanwhile, check out the Inhale blog for inspiration.