Graduate seeks £10k funding for indoor air quality business

A 23-year-old graduate from Oxfordshire is seeking £10,000 backing for his new air monitoring business having “declared war on bad indoor air quality”.

Douglas Booker has set up a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of his indoor air quality monitors

Douglas Booker has set up a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the final development and production of his indoor air quality monitoring technology, which he then intends to promote and sell through his ‘family-run’ company National Air Quality Testing Services Ltd.

The Brunel University graduate said he had recognised a business opportunity to help people monitor and clean up air pollution in their homes and hoped to raise awareness of the issue and influence policy makers through “widespread domestic testing”.

Mr Booker said: “We’re aware of the associated health risks with air pollution, but most of us still relate to an increase in air pollution as being solely an outdoor issue. We feel protected within the confines of our home, however, it is important to note that the air inside our homes can often be 10 times more polluted. With the average person now spending more than 90% of their time indoors, it is critical that this issue is addressed.”

But he said that in order to improve indoor air quality, it was first of all important to measure and understand it: “Once we understand our indoor air, we can start taking ownership of our indoor environments, making small changes to improve our indoor air quality.”

He added:

“Not only are we going to empower people to take control of their home environments, but by building a library of pollutant data, we can make informed choices to improve air quality at a much larger scale. We can show our data to policy makers and help protect public health through informed legislation.”

Having launched the campaign last week (June 12), the project will only be funded if at least £10,000 is pledged in total within the set time period. And, so far, with 29 days to go until the funding campaign closes, 21 backers have pledged a total of £361 towards the goal.

A number of rewards are also available to those backing the project, including “owning a piece of the science” and various local testing campaigns in the likes of schools, homes or workplaces.

In a video posted to his Kickstarter campaign website, Mr Booker comments: “An investment in us is an investment in science, in data, in cleaner indoor air, in a healthier and better environment and it’s an investment in young people like myself who are trying to make a positive to the world that we live in.”

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–NAQTS Ltd