News / Environment
‘Smogmobile’ measures Bristol’s air pollution
Duncan Mounsor knows everything that there is to know about air pollution, a curse on UK towns and cities responsible for 40,000 premature deaths each year.
He knows that it is the 40 million cars in the UK that cause the vast majority of dangerous nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the air. He knows that taking cars off the roads could save thousands of lives.
But his Stroud-based company Enviro Technology Services can only provide the readings that hopefully convince individuals, local councils and the government to take action.
is needed now More than ever
Driving around Bristol city centre in his air quality monitoring vehicle, otherwise known as the ‘smogmobile’, readings from various gadgets and gizmos on the roof of the electric van are measured and then fed live to a laptop that can plot air pollution second-by-second on Bristol’s streets.
Outside the Hippodrome in the morning rush hour, the smogmobile is stuck behind a dustbin lorry and there is a noticeable spike in the readings. On Anchor Road outside At-Bristol, the morning’s peak reading of 150 micrograms of NO2 per cubic metre is hit.
Parked outside Triodos Bank on quiet St George’s Road later that same morning, the readings are lower, but the average reading of 40 is equal to the EU annual limit.
“A lot of people go through their whole lives not thinking about air pollution,” Duncan says sadly, unthinkable to a man like himself who has been in the air monitoring industry for 25 years and whose company now sells their monitoring vehicles to councils up and down the country.
“You can choose where to get your water from, but you can’t choose where to get your air from.”
Read more: ‘Bristol must tackle air pollution’