Look up next time you pass Wood Lane tube station in White City. New colourful displays show you the air quality in real-time.
They are the creation of 'AWAIR', a project born from the partnership between Hammersmith & Fulham Council, Imperial College London, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and local residents who helped design them.
Currently, no area in H&F meets the long-term World Health Organization guidelines for safe air.
"Air pollution is invisible, but its impact on our children is very real," said Manon Chiari, a White City mum and community champion for the project. "AWAIR makes our local air visible, and now we can see when its polluted."
Seventeen clock-and-cloud shaped displays across White City and Shepherds Bush show hourly air pollution levels using a simple traffic light system:
- Blue means the air meets the short-term World Health Organization guidelines.
- Yellow and orange mean it's time to consider taking a different route, postponing that run, or seeing how you can help tackle the 'invisible emergency'.
Local groups taking action include Mums For Lungs, Breathe London and AWAIR community champions – email whitecity@awair-displays.org to get involved.
AWAIR display locations
- the junction of Wood Lane and Du Cane Road
- iHub Innovation and Translation Hub, Imperial College London White City campus
- Bentworth Road
- Hackspace, Wood Lane
- Television Centre, Wood Lane
- Wood Lane tube station
- L'Oreal Academy, South Africa Road
- Powerleague Shepherds Bush, South Africa Road
- QPR Loftus stadium, South Africa Road
- Randolph Beresford playground, Australia Road
- Our Lady of Fatima Church, Commonwealth Avenue
- Parkview Centre for Health & Wellbeing, Bloemfontein Road
- Phoenix Fitness Centre, Bloemfontein Road
- Phoenix Academy, The Curve
- Adelaide Grove
- Shepherds Bush Market, Uxbridge Road
- Shepherds Bush Green
Air quality data where everyone can see it
The displays might look like sensors, but they're actually much more clever – and accurate.
"Think of it like a weather forecast," explained Kayla Schulte from Imperial College London. "Weather forecasts don't come from a thermometer outside your window – they use models that combine data from multiple sources. That's exactly what we're doing with the air quality information on AWAIR displays."
Unlike apps that only some people use, street displays ensure equal access to vital health data for all those who need this information when they need it, where they need it.
Regulatory monitoring stations feed real-time measurements into computer models that can predict air pollution levels down to individual streets. The models know Wood Lane has worse air than side streets.
The data comes from Imperial's Environmental Research Group in White City. They created AWAIR after hearing campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah speak about her daughter Ella – the first ever person to have air pollution listed as a cause of death.
Health emergency on our doorstep
The displays form part of H&F's Better Air, Better Health partnership with Imperial and the NHS Trust, which tackles what health experts call, which tackles what health experts call the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK.
Long term exposure to man-made air pollution in the UK is estimated to cause between 28,000 to 36,000 deaths every year. That is equivalent to around 87 deaths in our borough.
Cllr Stephen Cowan, Leader of H&F, said:
Nobody wants to drink a glass of dirty water. Yet roughly 18 times each minute we breathe in contaminated, poisonous air. By working together, we can improve the air we breathe and the health and wellbeing of everyone who lives in, works in, or visits our great borough."
Andrew Grieve, AWAIR's creator at Imperial College London, said:
After years of air quality information being trapped in apps and websites that many people never see, we're bringing it to the streets where it matters. Every time someone checks the display and chooses to take their child through the park instead of along the main road, that's a small victory for public health."
