LISTEN: Air pollution hotspots can be predicted, here's how
Driving along the highways of Gauteng, it's hard to miss the blanket of dust and smoke hanging over the province in every direction, but where does it come from and where is it going?
The South African Consortium of Air Quality Monitoring is making air pollution its business. Their network of monitoring systems across Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga, known as AI_r, can detect pollution clouds and determine where they're heading.
According to Professor Bruce Mellado, the Executive Director of the South African Consortium of Air Quality Monitoring (SACAQM), South Africa now has the biggest monitoring network on the continent.
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The AI_r system consists of hundreds of devices that can be attached to buildings. The devices use the Internet of All Things, Artificial Intelligence, and laser sensors that take regular air samples and use that to forecast air pollution spikes and hotspots.
Wits Professor and the Executive Director of the South African Consortium of Air Quality Monitoring, Bruce Mellado, stresses that air pollution doesn't only affect those with chronic diseases and should be everyone's concern.
"Generally speaking, we become tired, we have difficulty concentrating, we call in sick, and we don't feel well.
"It has a major impact on the economy; in fact, the impact on the GDP in various countries has already been reliably calculated."
SACAQM is using AI_r as a warning system, which allows for the mitigation of these effects by picking up when there are high levels of pollution in the air, and in which direction these "pollution clouds" are moving. Mellado underscores that this is very useful when it comes to schools or similar establishments.
"With an early detection system that can provide the user information across our website, you'll be able to know that at a certain time, you are going to be in the middle of the cloud. If you are already inside the cloud, wear a mask."
Mellado says masks are the best protection against polluted air, which, according to a 2022 Lancet Study, causes more annual deaths than HIV, TB and Malaria combined.
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