EarthSense, the air quality expert is working with health, safety, and environmental (HSE) solution specialist, Sedulitas to distribute Zephyr® air quality sensors to businesses in Africa.
The partnership sees Sedulitas become a new distributor of Zephyr® air quality sensors to companies across the consulting, petrochemicals, construction, and mining sectors as well as clean air associations in South Africa and into the wider continent. The project will help inform a series of initiatives such as identifying pollution hotspots, sources and outlining workers’ exposure to pollution.
Mining companies, logistics firms and phosphate facilities carry out activities which contribute to particulate matter emissions and Sedulitas is aware of the importance of understanding air quality within and beyond the workplace. It will use the EarthSense partnership to provide solutions to a variety of air quality concerns by providing Zephyr® sensors to measure pollution and monitor levels through EarthSense’s MyAir® web platform. It will also offer consultancy on pollution mitigations and ongoing servicing.
Zephyr® sensors provide important data for use in a wide range of applications to mitigate air pollution. For example, construction workers can monitor air quality pre, during and post construction works to outline sustainable building methods, identify air quality baselines, and use measured data for reporting and compliance studies. Mining companies can use the air quality sensors to understand air quality in areas of interest and how activities, such as drilling and crushing, contribute to concentration levels.
Mobile and static sensors enable air quality networks to be introduced in cities in Africa. Companies such as clean air associations will be able to use an API to feed real-time data into existing systems, including climate or urban planning models, for a wide scale understanding of pollution levels, helping towards future decisions to lower concentrations and promote sustainability.
EarthSense Managing Director, Tom Hall said: “With thanks to the innovative technologies we’ve developed as part of the Zephyr® subscription, we can help companies understand air quality with an easy to maintain and versatile tool that can be used for a variety of applications to provide resolutions to anxieties about air quality.
“Focusing on South Africa and into the wider African continent, our partnership provides Sedulitas with sensors that can be used as standalone units for known hotspot areas or as wider networks powered using a solar panel or battery power for an easily accessible and detailed understanding of pollution trends. This offers an alternative option to government monitoring stations, many of which may not provide the detailed data needed to outline and implement air pollution reducing initiatives.”
Once installed, users will have the option of accessing measured Zephyr® data through MyAir®, the EarthSense web platform, or a near real-time (NRT) personal pollution exposure mobile application, which can be integrated with existing systems via an API. Users will also have the option of receiving an air dispersion model from Sedulitas to ensure air quality is within legal compliance limits, addressing concerns around pollution concentrations and wider environmental issues such as smell and dust.
Zephyr® sensors take real-time measurements for ambient air pollutants including nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone, (O3), particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM10) and have capabilities for TVOC and carbon dioxide measures (CO2) measures. With built in 4G and 5G technologies, NB-IoT and LTE Cat-M1 and RS232/RS485 communications, the sensors have the benefit of global deployment options and third-party connections for wider environmental monitoring of parameters including wind speed and direction, rain fall, and meteorological conditions.
Peter John Jacobs, Managing Director at Sedulitas said: “We are extremely proud to partner with a global health innovator such as EarthSense. By adding the Zephyr® and MyAir® to our existing suite of products, clients will be empowered to better understand health risk in their respective workplaces and communities and be adequately equipped to manage such health risks to acceptable levels.”