Schools included in London's air pollution sensor network

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, will fund a new network of sensors at key locations in London, including schools, as part of his Breathe London air quality monitoring project.

More than 100 sensors will be installed at priority locations in the capital next year, enabling Londoners, businesses and community groups to see how polluted their local area is.

For the first time, Londoners will also be able to “buy in” to the network at a low cost and host sensors in locations of their choice. This will revolutionise Londoners’ access to reliable data including for community groups, charities, businesses, individuals, academics and boroughs. Community groups and charities will be able to access the service at a discounted rate.

The new network will have a community focus and complement London’s existing, highest quality, reference grade monitors - most of which are owned and funded by London boroughs.  

Allowing Londoners to “buy in” to the existing Breathe London network will significantly reduce the costs of sourcing reliable air pollution data for local projects or schemes like School Streets. In the past this has been prohibitively expensive, often leaving communities with no data, or worse - extremely inaccurate data with no quality control.  

The new network will also support London’s green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. As boroughs face challenging budget constraints, the new network will provide a low-cost option to supplement their reference monitoring, which is far more expensive to run. This will ensure that, despite budget cuts, boroughs are still able to increase the level of air pollution monitoring in their area.

The rollout of these new sensors, provided by global sensing and data analytics company Clarity Movement Co., is the next phase of the world-leading Breathe London project. Sadiq launched the scheme in January 2019, making it affordable to access reliable air quality data for the first time. The expert Breathe London team have experimented with different kinds of sensor technology, including mobile sensors fitted to Google Streetview Cars, wearable sensors monitoring children’s exposure to air pollution on their journey to school, a pilot project using lower-cost fixed sensors in a dense sensor network and evaluating the air quality impact of School Streets.

Following the successful pilot scheme, the Mayor has now committed to fund the programme for the next four years. Breathe London will be delivered through Imperial Projects by the Environmental Research Group, their first major project after moving to their new global centre of air pollution research at Imperial College London. 

The project will focus on reaching communities that research shows have previously been less engaged with environmental programmes, including low-income and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups. This part of the project will be supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies who also co-fund the Schools Streets evaluation programme.  

Jemima Hartshorn, Founder of Mums for Lungs said: “This is a really great collaboration and we hope many schools will able to join this monitoring system at a low cost. We know that air pollution harms babies, children and in fact everyone’s health – from low birth weight to respiratory diseases, cancer and dementia – air pollution contributes to it all. Understanding local air quality will enable decision makers to prioritise action to reduce air pollution at hotspots. It will also help raise awareness of air pollution, which is critical for reducing it.”