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

  • March 21, 2019
    Karhoo unveils ‘roaming’ service with Taksee
    Ride-hailing platform Karhoo and Taksee – a Spanish provider of taxi services to the corporate market – have launched what they call a ‘roaming’ service. Taksee is currently available via phone and app in Spain, and just via app in a number of other European cities, including London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Rome. A Karhoo spokesperson told ITS International: “Taksee customers will be able to access taxis while they travel from country to country on the Taksee app. This will be facilitated by Ka
  • November 30, 2018
    Former US DoT boss says job was sometimes like ‘sitting over trapdoor’
    The political pressure on transit organisations was starkly highlighted by the distinguished former boss of Michigan Department of Transportation at a UK conference this week. Kirk Steudle, who joined Econolite recently after a career in the public sector, said he often felt as though there was “a trapdoor under your seat” while he was in charge of state transportation. Talking about the development of ITS solutions at regional authority level, he said: “The ability to move forward is largely dependen
  • November 30, 2018
    Former US DoT boss says job was sometimes like ‘sitting over trapdoor’
    The political pressure on transit organisations was starkly highlighted by the distinguished former boss of Michigan Department of Transportation at a UK conference this week. Kirk Steudle, who joined Econolite recently after a career in the public sector, said he often felt as though there was “a trapdoor under your seat” while he was in charge of state transportation. Talking about the development of ITS solutions at regional authority level, he said: “The ability to move forward is largely dependen
  • November 27, 2018
    Hawaii wins more than $400,000 in EPA Grants
    The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $411,578 in Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) grants to Hawaii to help curb pollution from diesel vehicle sources. The EPA’s West Coast Collaborative administers the DERA programme. This partnership, which combines the EPA’s Pacific Southwest and Pacific Northwest Regions, utilises public and private funds in a bid to reduce emissions. The Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) intends to use the grant to replace two diesel transit buses with batter