Skip to main content

British Safety Council launches app for measuring air pollution in London

The British Safety Council (BSC) and Kings College London have launched an app for outdoor workers to measure exposure to air pollution – an increasing preoccupation for the ITS industry. The Canairy app could help improve workzone safety by providing employees, and their bosses, with information to help them reduce exposure to air pollution. The app is being launched as part of the BSC’s ‘Time to Breathe’ campaign, which seeks to encourage companies, policymakers and regulators to take the risks of
March 11, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

The British Safety Council (BSC) and Kings College London have launched an app for outdoor workers to measure exposure to air pollution – an increasing preoccupation for the ITS industry.

The Canairy app could help improve workzone safety by providing employees, and their bosses, with information to help them reduce exposure to air pollution.

The app is being launched as part of the BSC’s ‘Time to Breathe’ campaign, which seeks to encourage companies, policymakers and regulators to take the risks of air pollution to outdoor workers more seriously.

BSC chairman Lawrence Waterman says the campaign will highlight “every employer’s duty of care” for the risks from ambient air pollution. He bemoans the fact that the Health and Safety Executive does not regulate the ‘ambient environment’ and says the UK government’s recent Clean Air Strategy “had little or nothing to say about people who spend their working lives outdoors”.

Canairy draws on the London Air Quality Network pollution map at King’s which shows current pollution levels across London with the worker’s GPS to calculate their exposure to pollution on an hourly basis. Once the exposure exceeds 1819 World Health Organisation (WHO) limits for the concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) the app notifies the user and suggests tips such as working away from traffic or putting up a screen barrier.

The BSC is now calling on London-based employers to trial Canairy to help build an accurate picture of the exposure faced by outdoor workers.

“Given that we don’t even know how many outdoor workers there are in the UK, we need those authorities with responsibility for our health and environment to work together on this issue,” Waterman concludes.

Canairy is available on both 493 Apple and 1812 Android devices.

More information on the BSC is available on the %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external website false https://www.britsafe.org/about-us/introducing-the-british-safety-council/about-the-british-safety-council/ false false%>.

Related Content

  • August 15, 2019
    Detroit introduces unified bus payment system
    Detroit authorities have launched a ticketing scheme to encourage bus ridership – a new venture which dovetails with existing initiatives to improve mobility, Ben Spencer reports The Detroit Department of Transportation (DDoT) has partnered with the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) to launch a unified payment system – called Dart - for the US region’s buses. Detroit’s mayor Mike Duggan says: “Dart will bring our two systems closer together with seamless transfers and more f
  • March 21, 2018
    WPS wins Viggo airport parking deal at Lelystad
    WPS Parking Systems – a division of Dynniq – has inked an airport parking deal at Intertraffic. WPS and Viggo signed a co-operation agreement for parking services at Lelystad Airport, in Flevoland, central Netherlands. WPS will supply, install and maintain the parking management system at the airport, which is in the process of major change. Lelystand is evolving from an airport used only for general aviation (with predominantly small planes) to becoming an international holiday airfield. As a result of t
  • August 14, 2018
    Getaround launches on-demand carsharing service in Philadelphia, US
    Getaround has launched its peer-to-peer carsharing service in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, US, in a bid to alleviate traffic congestion. The service also allows car owners to earn money by renting vehicles to people in their neighbourhood. The cars can be booked hourly or daily and are equipped with Getaround Connect, a patented platform which allows users to remotely locate and unlock vehicles through the company's iPhone or Android app.
  • January 24, 2019
    Bosch to trial driverless tech on Australia’s high-speed rural roads
    Bosch has received an automated driving system (ADS) permit from the Victorian government to test automated vehicle technology on high-speed rural roads in the south-eastern Australian state. Bosch is to use a $2.3 million grant from the Connected and Automated Vehicle (C/AV) Trial Grants Programme to develop the technology, which will be tested later this year. The C/AV programme funded through the government’s $1.4 million Towards Zero Action Plan – an initiative which provides guidelines on how V