Liverpool City Council partner with Vortex for clean air study

The deal facilitates a pilot looking at air pollution around four schools in the area.

A new agreement between one of northern England’s key local authorities and a leader in air quality technology has been announced, supporting a major research project linked to air pollution and children.

Vortex and Liverpool City Council will work together on the pilot, which means the Merseyside council will consistently monitor atmospheric levels around primary campuses to determine consistencies and fluctuations in pollutants.

Sensors are now installed at four different school locations, capturing real-time data. This helps provide insights into what the public are breathing in, while also offering feedback on the effectiveness of various traffic reduction programmes.

‘The focus of this study is to educate and inform the children, teachers and parents who attend these schools as to the effects of changing patterns of behaviour around school pickups and drop offs,’ said Aidan Fyans, Head of Delivery at Vortex IoT.

‘In order to promote positive behaviour changes, it is important to be able to present numerical evidence as to show how small things such as walking to school, rather than driving, as little as two days a week can have an appreciable impact on air quality around vulnerable demographics,’ he continued.

Earlier this year, Liverpool hosted the region’s first Active Travel Summit. Here’s what we learnt. Last month, we reported on a study by World Vision and Global Alliance Cities 4 Children that revealed air pollution is now the top health concern among young people globally. 

Image: Vortex