Air quality is one of the biggest threats to public health. Together, ambient or outdoor air pollution, and household air pollution cause 6.7 million premature deaths in a single year . Yet enough attention isn’t paid to the detrimental effects of poor air quality on the health of humans, plants, and wildlife.

The criticality of ongoing conversations

Every few weeks, you find that poor air quality has made it to the headlines, only to fade from the recesses of public memory in a matter of days. For instance, in the first few days of 2024 alone, there were reports of poor air quality in Srinagar due to power cuts and vehicular emissions, Delhi’s air quality was recorded as ‘very poor’, and an alarming six cities from Odisha made it to the country’s list of most polluted cities on 8 January 2024.

Yet, we only register poor air quality when we can see it as smog or when we smell the smoke. But in reality, air quality is constantly deteriorating as the population increases, and economic and development activities gather momentum. The problem isn’t seasonal anymore and is growing in magnitude every single day, which is why it demands an ongoing conversation.

Driving change through policy led by data and research

Unfortunately, air pollution is also a deeply complex issue. It’s not a work order that simply needs to be funded and executed, like a neighborhood needing wider roads, for example. The key to addressing air pollution is first understanding that the problem is highly nuanced and exists on several levels.

To meaningfully solve for it, decision-makers need to understand the severity of air quality in a particular region, identify the hotspots, and conduct source apportionment studies. These studies are indispensable as they offer a detailed understanding of the specific sources and their contribution to air pollution in that region. Decision-makers can then formulate targeted strategies to address the root causes and test the efficacy of the solutions using monitoring to ensure a more effective and precise approach to mitigating the complex issue of air pollution. This critical insight allows for informed decision-making, leading to policies and interventions that directly tackle the critical sources of air pollution effectively, thus enhancing the overall efficacy of air quality improvement initiatives.

It's important to recognize that air pollution extends beyond local boundaries, becoming a regional challenge influenced by wind direction and speed. To comprehensively address this, a holistic approach that considers airsheds and involves extensive modeling is essential. Active participation and collaboration between the government and the robust research community in India are pivotal for success.

Image credit: Johannes Bader, CC by 2.0 deed

Building partnerships with researchers

As we find that this approach to problem-solving is largely overlooked in the Indian context, we have worked tirelessly to mobilize researchers, institutes and policymakers, and advocate for change through our feature-rich, resilient, reliable, made-in-India air quality monitoring devices. So, over the years we have partnered with research institutes across the country and some outside India, to help drive the research and knowledge base in air quality forward. Our goal is to contribute to finding solutions and shaping policies for better public health and a healthier planet by offering reliable air quality monitoring solutions for both indoor and outdoor environments.

Meeting research specifications

Coincidentally, since our launch in 2016, institutions from across the country have also expressed a keen interest in working with us. Our association with India’s research community began at a time when there were almost no indigenous air quality monitoring solutions available. Teams needed staggering budgets to bring in air quality monitors from abroad and make do without any support for calibration, technical snags, or repair issues.

Today, eight years later, we work with some of India’s brightest, most ambitious minds to collectively facilitate change, and give air pollution the attention it deserves. While we are innovating to enable new, more advanced research on the subject, researchers choose our devices for a number of reasons.

“We have been using the Outdoor Airveda PM sensors since November 2018 for research purposes and are quite happy with its ruggedness and accurate performance despite continuous usage under harsh conditions.”

- Aerosol Research Group
IISER Mohali