Cork City clean air project seeks 1000 households to participate 

The project offers an opportunity for homes in Cork to contribute towards a goal of cleaner air for the city

Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Deirdre Forde, with Lisa O'Grady and Sabrina Moore from An Taisce, in Cork's Shandon Quarter to launch the Clean Air Together citizen science project. Picture: Michael O'Sullivan/OSM

A recruitment drive is underway for 1,000 households in Cork City to take part in a major citizen science project, to monitor the city's air pollution.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and An Taisce’s Environmental Education Unit launched an appeal on Monday, for people to sign up for the Clean Air Together Cork City project, which involves using a small monitoring device in the home to measure the air pollutant, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), throughout October.

NO2 comes mainly from cars, vans, and trucks, and it can have very harmful effects on your heart and lungs.

The results will help validate existing air quality models, but they will also be combined with existing EPA air quality results to give a better picture of NO2 levels in Cork City, and they will inform Cork City Council’s Air Quality Strategy.

A map showing the results will also be published on the project website, www.cleanairtogether.ie, allowing people to compare their results with other parts of the city.

Participation is free and is open to everyone who is a resident of Cork city.

Once registered and selected, a pack — which includes the monitoring tube and simple instructions on how to install it — will be posted to you.

The aim is to get 1,000 participants to install their tubes on Monday October 3, and leave them in place for approximately four weeks.

Participants will then be asked to post the tube back to the EPA, free of charge, where it will be analysed, and results should be available early next year.

EPA senior scientist David Fenton said by taking part, people will help the team collect data that will provide a detailed picture of air pollution in the city.

Sabrina Moore, a project manager with An Taisce, said it is a great opportunity for people to become citizen scientists.

The data from this project will contribute to scientific research by the EPA, but also can inform policy of Cork City Council to help improve the air we breathe

The Lord Mayor, Cllr Deirdre Forde, said the project offers citizens the opportunity to directly engage in the collection of air quality information, and improve the quality of air that we breathe.

If you would like to sign up,  visit www.cleanairtogether.ie to register as a participant.

It follows a similar project in Dublin, which took place in autumn 2021.