Wearable air pollution monitor may help track street-level pollution

Environmental nonprofit HabitatMaps reports that air pollution costs the U.S. $78 billion a year. To bring that figure down some, the company is working on wearable air pollution monitors for the masses, according to Grist.

The devices, called AirBeams, will look to measure air quality at the street level instead of at higher elevations like most governmental monitoring efforts. If the company can get enough people to wear them, a more representative sampling of air quality near the ground could be recorded.

HabitatMaps’ representatives say the cheap, portable air quality monitoring sensor could help in making arguments for air quality changes. They plan for hundreds of people to wear them in New York City in the near future.

Top image: The AirBeam. (Credit: HabitatMaps)