PAQI data has already played a key role in the adoption of pollution policies, serving as evidence during a 2017 case at Lahore’s high court to have smog recognised as air pollution that is a danger to public health.
Using one of their air monitors, PAQI demonstrated that “the air quality was hazardous inside the courtroom”, Omar said.
The court then ordered the regional government of Punjab to deploy its own monitoring stations – now 44 across the province – and make the data public.
But the government also says private monitors are unreliable and cause panic.
Researchers say, however, that these devices are essential to supplement official data that they view as fragmented and insufficiently independent.
“They got alarmed and shut down some stations when the air pollution went up,” Omar said.
3D-PRINTED MONITORS
Officials have overhauled the management of brick kilns, a major source of black carbon emissions, and taken other measures such as fining drivers of high-emission vehicles and incentivising farmers to stop agricultural burning.
Worried about their community in Islamabad, academics Umair Shahid and Taha Ali established the Curious Friends of Clean Air organisation.
In three years, they have deployed a dozen plug-sized devices, made with a 3D printer at a cost of around US$50 each, which clock air quality every three minutes.
Although they do not contribute to IQAir’s open-source map or have government certification, their readings have highlighted alarming trends and raised awareness among their neighbours.
An outdoor yoga exercise group began scheduling their practice “at times where the air quality is slightly better in the day”, said Shahid.
He has changed the times of family outings to minimise the exposure of his children, who are particularly vulnerable, to the morning and evening pollution peaks.
Their data has also been used to convince neighbours to buy air purifiers – which are prohibitively expensive for most Pakistanis – or to use masks that are rarely worn in the country.
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