Air quality
Suggested resources for a lesson on air quality, greenhouse gases or climate change, introduced by engineer Sujith Kollamthodi
Helping people get the right air quality
Sujith is an engineer who is passionate about improving our air quality.
"My job as an environmental consultant enables me to make a difference, to improve our environment. No two days are ever the same and it's really exciting. I'm working on a really exciting project at the moment to look at the impacts of moving the whole of our car fleet to electric vehicles. What impact will that have on our air quality? On our greenhouse gas emissions? On climate change? And on our power sector? Will we be able to generate enough electricity? So, really exciting stuff."
Air Quality
The largest sources of pollutants produced by human activities include motor vehicles and industry. Motor vehicles emit a wide variety of pollutants, principally carbon monoxide (CO), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulates (PM10). In addition, photochemical reactions resulting from the action of sunlight on nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and VOCs from vehicles lead to the formation of ozone, a secondary long-range pollutant, which impacts in rural areas often far from the original emission site.
The activities look at air pollution and how it is monitored. Pupils can collect data for their own area and analyse it in terms of the levels of air pollution and the effect on human health. This is also a good resource for developing students data analysis and graph interpretation skills
